Talus: A History of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club. Dean Engle. Peter Randall, Hanover, 1993. 253 pages, index, three appendices, many illustrations, two maps. $24.50.

The DMC (not to be confused with the DOC—Dartmouth Outing Club) was started in 1936 by a small group of undergraduates, most of whom would become distinguished mountaineers. This collection of twenty short essays tell the story of the club, and fills the gap between 1969 and 1990 when the DMC Journal was not published. More importantly it preserves scores of photographs of people and both great and small climbs throughout New England—and what some of the DMC climbers accomplished elsewhere in the world. Engle interviewed many veterans, studied climbing articles, and has written a unique and fascinating record of daring, humor, bravery, tragedy, and philosophy from Dartmouth. It’s a rich, light-hearted companion to Yankee Rock and Ice by the Watermans, and puts the DMC one-up on the older Harvard Mountaineering Club. Required reading for all who are interested in how New England climbing and climbers have flourished in the last fifty years.

Charles S. Houston, M.D.