Close Ups of the High Sierra

by Norman Clyde, Ruth Daly (Illustrator), Vern Clevenger (Illustrator)

No man ever knew more of the High Sierra terrain than Norman Clyde.
David R. Brower Not since the time of John Muir had anyone established such a kinship with the Sierra Nevada.
Los Angeles Times Wherever men gather around blazing campfires on cold nights in the high country and talk of the history of mountaineering, there are certain names that inevitably come into the conversation. . . among Americans, John Muir, Clarence King and Norman Clyde.
San Francisco Chronicle Close Ups of the High Sierra is a collection of stories as told by one of California's great mountaineers, Norman Clyde. His rate of first ascents far surpassed those of John Muir, Clarence King and William Brewer, combined. Often called upon to find downed planes and lost climbers, he did so with a tremendous rate of success. For more than half a century many of the new stories in this volume have been filed away in the forgotten solitude and darkness of library collections. Clyde's mountain photographs of his famed Sierra Club High Trips attended by such notable Sierrans as Ansel Adams, Cedric Wright, Francis Farquhar, Glen Dawson, and Jules Eichorn remind us of the Golden Age of High Sierra climbing and days long past.

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

Reviews

[Lobsang · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice book for High Sierra enthusiasts. The core five essays were originally published in the Automobile Club of Southern California's touring magazine -- later as the original Close Ups book. They broadly describe prominent peaks in the high Sierra, region by region, and honestly I've always found them pretty dry. But this edition is supplemented with sixteen other essays, narratives about solo climbing adventures (the east face of Mt Whitney, the search for Walter Starr's body in the Minarets), mountain travel advice, and a few excerpts from his personal journal. Clyde traveled and climbed mostly alone, and the bits of journal depart from his usual terseness to describe solitude in the mountains back in a time when that solitude would have been deep. Of course, it takes the form of what he sees around him, no spilling of guts. There are also memorials written by Walt Wheelock and Glen Dawson, prominent figures in that early generation of Sierra alpinism.

[Robert Cymbala]

Norman Clyde's attitude is just as amazing as all the climbing he did. ~ R

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given to me at the base of Mt Tyndall.