A Climber’s Guide to the Interior Ranges of British Columbia by William Lowell Putnam, based on previous editions by J. Monroe Thorington. Fourth Edition. New York: American Alpine Club, 1963. xvii + 248 pages, 16 plates. Price $4.50 ($3.50 to members).

Bill Putnam takes over the present edition, the fourth, of the Guide as successor to Dr. J. Monroe Thorington. He is equally thorough in his efforts to find all pertinent information. The result is a useful and up to date record indispensible to anyone planning a trip into a wonderful region for moderate or very difficult climbing on good rock or for scrambling and wilderness travel.

The alpine interior ranges are from the north to the south, the Cariboo, Monashee, Northern and Southern Selkirks, and Northern and Southern Purcells. Means of access, history of climbing and routes on individual mountains are described for each group without essential omission. The principal references are given but some of those in earlier editions are dropped to save space, lending continued usefulness to those editions.

Plates are a very pleasing and valuable innovation in this edition. They give a better impression of each region than can be gained from words. Five regions are illustrated, the exception being the Monashees.

The description of the Northern Selkirks is very full, profiting particularly from Bill Putnam’s devotion to its attractions. The Board of Geographical Names in Canada must shudder at the less than mythological Sir Benjamin along with Yggdrasil, worthy efforts of Colossal Enterprises (now in receivership). I must defend the names, having been paid off, for there in undying print I find Mounts Eric and Martha (les enfants) commemorating two ends of the Small Fry Ridge, first climbed by doting fathers.

Sterling B. Hendricks