Mt. Tom Guidebooks

FEATURED: High Sierra Climbing - Volume 3

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The Sierra Nevada is a world-renowned climbing destination for alpine climbing in some of the most favorable conditions of any mountain range on the planet. This close-to-comprehensive guidebook covers technical free climbs, alpine big walls, ice climbs, and selected scrambles in the High Sierra. It is the essential reference for any climber exploring the “Range of Light”.

This book, Volume 3 of a three-volume series, covers peaks between Bishop Pass and Sonora Pass. Including:



Picture Peak & the Evolutions
The Bishop Skyline Peaks
Merriam Peak & Seven Gables
Bear Creek Spire & Rock Creek
The Minarets, Mount Ritter, & Banner Peak
Convict and McGee Creeks
The Cathedral Range
Mount Conness & the Third Pillar of Dana
The Incredible Hulk & Little Slide Canyon
Northern Yosemite & the Juggernaut
Flatiron Butte & the Watchtower
& much, much, more!

FEATURED: High Sierra Climbing - Volume 2

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This book, Volume 2 of a three-volume series, covers peaks on the northern part of the Kern-Kaweah Divide, the Great Western Divide, and on and west of the crest between Shepherd Pass and Bishop Pass.

Angel Wings & Valhalla
Tamarack Creek & Saber Ridge
The Watchtower & Tokopah Valley
Bubbs Creek Wall & Charlotte Dome
Mount Clarence King Area
Tehipite Valley
Gorge of Despair
Lake Basin
Temple Crag & the Palisades
Langille Peak & the Citadel
& much, much more!

FEATURED: High Sierra Climbing - Volume 1

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The Sierra Nevada is a world-renowned climbing destination for alpine climbing in some of the most favorable conditions of any mountain range on the planet. This close-to-comprehensive guidebook covers technical free climbs, alpine big walls, ice climbs, and selected scrambles in the High Sierra. It is the essential reference for any climber exploring the “Range of Light”.

The Good, The Great, and The Awesome

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The Guidebook to the top High Sierra Rock Climbs, 2nd Edition

Early Days in the Range of Light: Encounters with Legendary Mountaineers

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It's 1873. Gore-Tex shells and aluminum climbing gear are a century away, but the high mountains still demand your attention. Imagine the stone in your hands and thousands of feet of open air below you, with only a wool jacket to weather a storm and no rope to catch a fall.

Daniel Arnold did more than imagine — he spent three years retracing the steps of his climbing forefathers, and in Early Days in the Range of Light, he tells their riveting stories. From 1864 to 1931, the Sierra Nevada witnessed some of the most audacious climbing of all time. In the spirit of his predecessors, Arnold carried only rudimentary equipment — no ropes, no harness, no specialized climbing shoes. Sometimes he left his backpack and sleeping bag behind as well, and, like John Muir, traveled for days with only a few pounds of food rolled into a sack slung over his shoulder.

In an artful blend of history, biography, nature, and adventure writing, Arnold brings to life the journeys and the terrain traveled. In the process he uncovers the motivations that drove an extraordinary group of individuals to risk so much for airy summits and close contact with bare stone and snow.

The Last Season

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This, the story of the life and mysterious disappearance of Randy Morgenson, High Sierra Backcountry Ranger, makes for a compelling read - and along the way describes some of the places we've either been or would love to be - some hauntingly so, or perhaps it just my sense of nostalgia.

It's a great read.

Ansel Adams - American Experience

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Not particularly a film about climbing, but rather the life and works of Ansel Adams - whose plates of the High Sierra and the Yosemite remain as the datum-point of California mountain imagery.

Parts of this documentary capture the haunting spirit of the High Sierra like no other film before.

If you need a reason to join your local PBS, or The Sierra Club, this is it. Just the thought that my few measley bucks contributed to this gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

The Climber's Guide to the High Sierra

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The final version of Hervey Voge's original. My first guidebook to the High Sierra and one you could actually take with you - I think I read it more lying in a tent than at home.

Starr's Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region

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Lovingly prepared. The original guide on how to get in and out of the High Sierra, originally published in the 1930's and still quite valid today, thanks to the conservationists. Any edition is worthwhile and used books stores often carry more than one - the older the better.

Missing in the Minarets

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The Search for Walter A. Starr, Jr. (sub-title)

A real page turner for those of us interested in climbing history, I won't say any more.

Mountaineering in California

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Great fun! A ripping Victorian yarn (true story nevertheless) about how famous explorer Clarence King and two of his buddies made an epic excursion from west of the Great Western Divide over to the High Sierra crest in order to bag the highest peak, and managed to bag the wrong one! Written in the days when the American public were hungry for tales of exploration and adventure instead of being just plain hungry.

The purchase link now opens a free online text edition.

Close Ups of the High Sierra

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Norman Clyde was the most prolific first ascentionist in the history of climbing in this range - so it's a good idea to read what he thought of climbing here. An expanded and illustrated edition of Norman Clyde's classic, with new stories added for the first time.

A Climber's Guide to the High Sierra

The entire range including climbs in the Yosemite! Out of print, try to find it at used book stores. Contains mountain plates by Ansel Adams himself.

My First Summer in the Sierra

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Muir gleaned some of the truth of the Universe just by merely existing in it's wild and beautiful regions (can it be that simple?) - his idea that everything is connected predates Sagan and all scientific observations.

This volume in the John Muir Library Series is the most popular of Muir's works: the naturalist's account of his first visit to the High Sierra and the Yosemite.

High Sierra Climbing

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Yes, yet another Sierra select featuring detailed topos of "40 of the best" rock climbs in the backcountry.

Climbing California's High Sierra

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Originally known as 100 Sierra Classics this book is somewhere halfway between the select works and the full blown Secor guide. Contains schematics and historical data etc.

The Good, The Great, and the Awesome

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Peter Croft's down to earth route descriptions will inform and entertain you. Another "select" work which also contains roadside cragging, and eateries in the local towns.

Climbing California's Fourteeners

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Routes on the peaks of the range which are > 14,000ft. Contains historical information and useful schematics of the more sterner stuff.

FEATURED: The High Sierra - Peaks, Passes, and Trails

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R.J.Secor's bumper book of fun for the Sierra is still the quintessential High Sierra guidebook for people who want to get the big picture, and learn all about a mountain range bigger than the entire Alps.