The White Tower

Publication Year: 1946.

The White Tower, by James Ramsey Ullman. 8vo.; 479 pages.

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1945. $3.00.

Five mountain climbers, of as many nationalities, and a guide, meet during wartime by super-coincidences in Kandermatt, Switzerland, where they determine to attempt a new route on an unidentifiable local peak, strangely Himalayan in stature. Their adventures over two weeks on this climb, during which each one reveals his philosophy in the way in which he tackles difficulties, comprise the story. The non-climber, accepting it at face value will find it a thrilling tale.

The experienced mountaineer, however, cannot fail to compare the details of the story with his own experiences and to raise many questions as to the accurate rendering of a great climb. But there are probably 10,000 non-climbers who will read this book to every reader who is an expert, and it is a fact that if one wishes to popularize mountaineering by writing a best-seller which features a mountain ascent, one will have to picture it the way the public wants it to read, with each thrill raised to the Nth degree.

In The White Tower a mountaineer who knows the Alps will be quick to criticize many features in the description of the ascent— jumping up over a bergschrund; cutting steps in ice which is found to overlay snow; an icefall, with séracs, located above the bergschrund; five kinds of rock on one peak—are a few examples. However, there is no argument but that Mr. Ullman has done an outstanding service for mountain climbing in presenting the subject in a way which has aroused great interest in mountaineering among the American public. An entire Fifth Avenue publisher’s window features it; on the subway and surburban trains war-workers and shopgirls are engrossed in reading it, and we cannot at this moment foresee what a popular lift it will undoubtedly give to mountaineering in the summer of 1946, perhaps with Hollywood’s help.

While this reviewer would like to see the author produce a novel based on the milder actual experiences of some true Alpine ascent, the reading public has changed greatly since Running Water, and such a book today would probably fall flat. Let us then recognize that The White Tower, by depicting almost every imaginable technique of climbing hung on to what might be called a “Beispielspitze,” is rapidly awakening throughout the country a keen interest in mountaineering.

J. E. F.