September 25, 2011

Challenge Of Rainier 40th Anniversary Edition

The Challenge of Rainier – 40th Anniversary Edition by Dee Molenaar is set to be released in October.

The 40th anniversary edition includes restored illustrations and historical photographs, and a new foreword by Ed Viesturs as well as updated route information, accident statistics, and more through 2010.

To those viewing Mount Rainier from afar, the mountain can be elusive, hiding behind cloud cover. But when it’s fully visible, its beauty stops even jaded locals in their tracks. Even at a distance, the snow-covered volcano seems massive and alluring.

Many Everest veterans have trained on Rainier, honing their skills while working as climbing guides. The first American to reach the summit of Everest, Jim Whittaker, was a Rainier guide during the 1950s, while Ed Viesturs, the first American to climb all fourteen 8000-meter peaks, guided on Rainier during the 1980s. Many climbers aspire to nothing more than to reach Rainier’s summit via one or more of the many and varied routes on the mountains, and hikers enjoy the challenge of the encircling ninety-three-mile Wonderland Trail.

In his classic work of climbing history, The Challenge of Rainier, Dee Molenaar has gathered the human history of Mount Rainier from the first European observations of the mountain in 1792 through the early explorations, historic climbs, and development of the national park, to modern-day speed records and quirky “firsts.” He has drawn not only on his own seventy-year-history with the mountain but also on interviews with notable figures and on guide and park records to compile basic facts about getting around the mountain, personal anecdotes, and accounts of some of the tragedies and amazing survivals that have occurred on its flanks.

Dee Molenaar’s professional association with Mount Rainier began in 1940 when Clark Schurman, then chief guide on the mountain, suggested he “give up milking cows, enroll in college, and guide during the summers.” Dee is nationally known for his detailed maps and illustrations that have appeared in many books and periodicals.

432 pages * 7 x 8 1/2 * 100 B&W photographs * 10 charts * $24.95 * paperbound * ISBN 978-1-59485-520-7

On store shelves October 2011, soon available on Kindle, Nook, other e-book platforms

Published by The Mounaineers Books