The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier

The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier
by Bruce Barcott

The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier
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Book Summary Information

Author: Bruce Barcott
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-09
ISBN: 1570615217
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Sasquatch Books

Book Reviews of The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier

Book Review: It's about The Mountain
Summary: 5 Stars

The Measure of a Mountain is a mountain climber's book in the same way that Edward Abbey's books are for the desert explorer, it is about the relationship with The Mountain not the climb. Bruce Barcott writes in a way that captures howy we in the Northwest engage with Mt. Rainier. There is something about it that draws us back, renews us, and then pushes us away. The Measure of a Mountain captures this like no other book, video, or film I have ever seen or read does.

I often say that a climb of Mt. Rainier starts when you decide to make the ascent and includes the training, preparation, and psychological fitness that precedes a climb. This is the story of his preparation. Part of this time before the climb is getting to know yourself and understanding the challenge you have taken on. Mr. Barcott does this by analyzing, studying, presenting, and hiking around Mt. Rainier. The Mountain is none to kind to him in the process, anyone who has been to its flanks more than a time or two will truly understand. I love the end of the fourth chapter where he says "At Mowich Lake, four days into the journey, I quit the mountain. The inexorable moist had crept into the cells of my sleeping bag.....I retired for the winter, beaten." I had been there too.

This is the book to read when preparing for Mt. Rainier, not so you can self-arrest or tie a good figure-8 but so you can understand what you are doing. A must-read for anyone who approaches the grand lady of the Northwest.

Summary of The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier is the largest and most dangerous volcano in the country. Looming massively above the rugged Cascade Range in Washington State, it is visited by millions, climbed by thousands, and romanticized as the most potent icon of the region. Yet it is a mountain that few truly know.
InThe Measure of a Mountain,Seattle writer Bruce Barcott sets out to know Rainier. His method is exploratory, meandering, personal. In a masterful work of narrative journalism, Barcott adroitly explores not only the natural place of Rainier, but also the psychology and meaning of all mountains.

Mount Rainier, North America's biggest volcano, looms over Seattle like an invitation to... adventure? Disaster? Discovery? It's all of the above for Bruce Barcott, a Seattle writer who captures the mountain from multiple angles in this luminous biography that defines Rainier's landscape to be like none other on the continent. By turns witty and introspective, Barcott's trip to the top of the glacier-clad peak is filled with history, scientific observation, and a divided personal attachment that struggles to make sense of the mountain and its effect on the surrounding land and people. The Measure of a Mountain is a literate, entertaining view of a totemic Northwest landmark.

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