Ascent: The Mountaineering Experience in Word and Image. Steve Roper and Allen Steck, editors. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1984. 174 pages, black and white and color photographs, drawings. $25.00.

These days a wider diversity of people than ever before are taking to the hills, ranging from the weekend devotees to weirdos to the new breed of superclimbers—whose single-minded commitments, media images and financial rewards make them de facto professionals.

Given this tremendous range in ability and involvement, the question then arises: whose “mountain experience in word and image” should the quadrennial Ascent reflect? Wisely, editors Roper and Steck have decided to publish what they deem good writing by “literature mountaineers,” believing that quality writing will appeal to all. That makes sense for such a diverse climbing community which already has its own trade press. It also provides the proper means for judging this latest edition: namely, by how effectively and creatively these authors communicate their mountaineering ideas and experiences to all levels of climbers.

Sad to say, using that standard, the fiction selections are disappointing. An activity conducted under such dramatic conditions and in such superb natural surroundings ought to provide the stuff of many powerful short stories, but here it doesn’t. There is, to be sure, no lack of climbing action or settings in these pieces. Although imaginative plots and ethereal settings are used in most of the stories, unfortunately, the literary actors, the climbers themselves, come off as ethereal and without substance. Most of the tales are trying too hard to make a point or to push fashionable climbing themes: climbing as a mystical experience; climbing as ultimately useless or self-destructive; the climber as self- absorbed or narcissistic, etc. They strain to be sensational or to persuade, only to overshoot their marks and, ironically, trivialize the lives of climbers. Instead of characters, we end up with caricatures. Cardboard characters occur and make it apparent that what is lacking in this collection is any short story of a normal climber dealing with normal doubts and desires.

The most substantial piece in this edition is an excerpt from Jeff Long’s upcoming book, Angels of Light. Long has already published a number of worthy stories and even this excerpt stands on its own. His action is well paced, the characters are refreshingly believable and the prose perfectly suited to the subject matter.

Unfortunately, many of the photographs—Ascent’s historic strength—were lackluster in this edition. Only one of three photographic spreads measures up to past standards. “In and Around Denali,” with color photographs by various artists, does capture well the moods and multitudinous beauties of the “Great One” and its environs. Surprisingly, Olaf Sööt’s Patagonia images, taken with a Hasselblad, are flat and lacking in detail. And Hank Levin’s “A Bouldering Gallery,” while colorful and well cropped, seems lacking in dynamic motion.

In contrast to the suspect quality of its fiction and photography, Ascent is on much firmer ground with the nonfiction entries. Most are first rate. Dave Roberts is back with another provocative piece, “The Public Climber,” questioning the place of publicity in climbing. Ron Matous, another returnee from the last Ascent, twists the traditional expedition account around in “Masherbrum and Back Again.” With Himalayan climbers still searching for the Last Great Writing Problem, Matous has taken a new direction and devoted the bulk of his article to the approach and retreat from a thwarted climb. His attention to people and places provides some fresh glimpses of the region’s natural and human grandeur. More traditional climbing accounts and surveys come in articles about Patagonia and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison by Bobby Knight and Ed Webster respectively. Then there is Tom Higgins’ indignant essay on climbing ethics, “Tricksters and Traditionalists.”

Steck and Roper have also shown that they’re not afraid to inject religion into climbing (something not even Reagan has attempted) by publishing an article, “Mrs. Robertson Is Climbing Again.” Norah Robertson is a feisty old Briton and feminist who conquered cancer through Christian Science beliefs and then fought many other battles within the family circle to gain acceptance as a female climber. She continues to make ascents at seventy-five. Rick Sloane’s tasteful treatment of her remarkable life and religion makes this one of the best climbing biographies recently written.

My favorites, however, were a trilogy of articles on the current Denali scene and Joe Kelsey’s story about the tribulations of writing a guidebook to the Wind River Mountains. All of these are stuffed with good writing, useful facts, observations and climbing anecdotes. Only a curmudgeon would not enjoy them.

This edition of Ascent shows that there’s wide variety and plenty of strength in mountaineering nonfiction. Mountain fiction, however, is alive but not yet well. Although the unevenness of quality in this edition remains a considerable drawback, Steck and Roper’s commitment to mountaineering fiction is commendable and I hope that they’ll continue to give it a chance to grow.

Jim Vermeulen