Berge unserer Erde (Mountains of our Earth), by Toni Hiebeler. Süddeutscher Buchverlag München 1974. 208 pages, 116 pictures, 91 in color. 9½ × 13½ inches, hard cover. Price in Germany DM 65.-

With this volume the well-known climber, author and past editor of various climbing magazines, Toni Hiebeler, presents a picture book on the “mountains of our earth”. According to the words of the author, a mountain had to be beautiful, well-known and with an interesting climbing history to qualify for this book. By and large, Hiebeler adheres to this criterion, with a few exceptions: I do not consider the volcanoes on the Russian peninsula Kamtschatka particularly beautiful, well-known or as having a significant climbing history.

None of the major ranges has been overlooked: the Alps, Caucasus, Pamir, Tienshan, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Himalaya, Norway, Greenland, New Zealand, East Africa, North and South America are all pretty well represented. A separate chapter is devoted to the great volcanoes in Europe, Russia, Mexico and Japan. Each major chapter is preceded by a brief introduction to the general features of the mountain range and a little map.

As far as the quality of the pictures is concerned, the vast majority falls into the category good to excellent. Some are breathtaking, like the group of descending porters with Nuptse in the background. Unfortunately, a few are below standard. There is no reason to include a poor picture of a mountain as easily accessible and as frequently photographed as Half Dome in Yosemite.

The picture of each mountain is accompanied by one page of text, written in a rather general, light-hearted vein and including a short climbing history. This is not a technical guidebook for climbers—it is just as much written for the armchair mountaineer. So, many of the statements should not be taken too critically. A Yosemite climber may be appalled by sentences like: “The history of Half Dome is less spectacular than that of El Cap, however the climbing routes are even more serious. One does not need an infinite number of pitons, but real expertise in climbing. The seven routes on Half Dome are less frequently repeated than those on El Cap.”

In the Appendix, a list of the 4000-meter peaks of the Alps, the 7000-meter peaks of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Tienshan, the 6000- meter peaks of America and the above-7500-meter peaks of the Himalaya is given, including data on the first ascents. One will notice that quite a few peaks in the last category are still unclimbed.

In spite of a few shortcomings, I believe that the climbers and mountaineers will like this book (if they can afford it) as much as the general public. The first group will be found reminiscing and dreaming of new adventures over its pages, the latter will be awed by the beauty of the mountains and the courage of the ones who climb them.

J. Richard Hechtel