Sacred Mountains of the World (Cambridge University Press), by Ed Bernbaum, is thoroughly updated from the first edition (1991), expanding the original and freshly considering the impacts of climate change and cultural preservation. Everest 2022: The Epic Story of the First Attempt on the World’s Highest Mountain (Pegasus Books) is Mick Conefrey’s fifth book-length history of early climbs on the 8,000-meter peaks. A.E.W. Mason’s Running Water and The Guide, with an introduction and notes by Roberta Grandi (London Academic Publishing) is a new edition of a classic early century (1907) mountaineering novel accompanied by a little-known story, “The Guide,” assembled with care and admiration. Rites of Passage: The Legacy of Adventure Climbing in the Sierra Nevada, self-published by E.C Joe, is an anthology of lesser-known tales of exploratory climbing in the southern Sierra as “clean climbing” emerged, told by those who were there. In Highest and Hardest: A Mountain Climber’s Lifetime Odyssey to the Top of the World (Falcon Guides), Chris Kopczyinki describes becoming the 12th person to climb the Seven Summits, and in Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime (National Geographic), Nirmal Purja tells the story of his record-breaking climbs of the 8,000ers. In Points of Astonishment: Alpine Stories (DreamStreet Press), David Stevenson’s short fiction picks up where his Banff Mountain Book Award–winning Letters from Chamonix leaves off.

— David Stevenson