Over these seemingly changeless mountains, in endless succession, move the ephemeral colors of dawn and sunset and of noon and night, the shadows and sunlight, the garlands of clouds with which storms adorn the peaks, the misty rain-curtains of afternoon showers.

– Fritiof Fryxell, The Tetons: Interpretations of a Mountain Landscape

My first year of college back at Ricks I started out as a Geology major. I think it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t know what I wanted to do and that I enjoyed spending time in the mountains, so it seemed at the time to be a logical choice. I only recall taking one or two courses actually related to geology, but also recall taking an Art History class. One of those classes was obviously more interesting and inspiring than the others, which is evidenced by the fact that I work as a designer and not for an oil company.

This book I picked up a few months ago is a perfect summation of my year at Ricks. A little geology, a little information design and cartography - a good mix. Fritiof Fryxell was a geologist and the first naturalist of the Grand Teton National Park and put this little beauty together. Not too over the head of the non-geologist, and an insightful look into the make-up and geologic history of a beautiful place.

View the Set

After having spent all day in a company meeting I was pretty much forced to stop by the Seattle Patagonia store to get my mind wrapped around something other than web strategy, design, development, UX, analytics, optimization, and social networking. Not that there’s anything wrong with that - but I just needed a bit of a distraction tonight instead of thinking about work all weekend. They usually have a pretty interesting book section at Patagonia, and tonight I found a couple of keepers.

1. Northern Oregon Wilderness Areas - Donna Ikenberry Aitkenhead
2. Early Hiking in the Olympics 1922-1942 - Paul Crews

The guide book is a bit old, but just seemed like a book that would be good to have given my current location, and ever since last summer’s Mt. Olympus trip, I’ve become a sucker for anything about the Olympic range. Should be a good read.

From time to time for at least the last 12 years or so, I’ve had a simple catalog show up in the mail from a little company called Chessler Books. From a design perspective it’s purely functional, and I’ve honestly never ordered anything from them - every climbing book I own I’ve picked up from local Seattle and Portland booksellers - but there’s definitely money to be spent with these guys. From posters to autographed copies of historical narratives, antique maps (swoon) to vintage hardware, Chessler is easily the most recognizable resource for adventure, mountain, and polar literature.

The founder of the company, Michael Chessler, had a list that he shared of what he considers the 100 best mountaineering books out there. I can’t say I’ve read most of them, but I have read a handful and have my eyes on a few more. For the sake of posterity I’m sharing his list below with my own custom color key that I’ll update as I continue to work through them.

• Owned, but not read
• Not owned, but read and returned to the library
• Owned and read and enjoyed

Chessler’s 100 Best Mountaineering Books