Good climbing coffee table books?

Tony Sartinwrote:

This one is great too.

This. Gorgeous pictures in a really neat format. A classic.

I have one older, and likely quite rare,  one to mention, that was very influential, at least for me, BITD—-Rock Climbers In Action in Snowdonia by Tony Smythe and John Cleare, from the early 1960s. It is not as sumptuous and colorful as most of the others listed so far, in fact, the photos are all black and white, however, as so often with B and W photography, they seem to penetrate to the heart of the climber’s experience. John Cleare was one of the first of the ‘modern’ climbing photographers and a true master of his genre. The essays by Smythe are also quite interesting, in a quirky British style, and present a very good ‘window’ into an important locale and era, that had a significant impact on overall climbing development.

That Milner book brings back memories. Other than some Everest stuff and maybe Annapurna, that book and Starlight and Storm were about the only climbing books in our town library, so I poured over them during the very beginning of my now lifelong climbing obsession.

I was thrilled a few years ago to pick up a copy at a used book store ( no dust jacket though, unlike yours).

It is interesting that the Milner book and Smythe’s are only about 15 years apart but the differences in style, the nature of the routes pictured, the equipment being used, the clothing being worn, the quality of the photography really seem many generations apart—they show how much climbing changed during that time period.

Here are a couple that I have .

This is a very good one by the late Layton Kor. This one is my favorite.

John

Alan Rubinwrote:

That Milner book brings back memories. Other than some Everest stuff and maybe Annapurna, that book and Starlight and Storm were about the only climbing books in our town library, so I poured over them during the very beginning of my now lifelong climbing obsession.

I was thrilled a few years ago to pick up a copy at a used book store ( no dust jacket though, unlike yours).

It is interesting that the Milner book and Smythe’s are only about 15 years apart but the differences in style, the nature of the routes pictured, the equipment being used, the clothing being worn, the quality of the photography really seem many generations apart—they show how much climbing changed during that time period.

I think that many of Milner’s pictures must have been taken before the war and reflect the 1930s much more than the 1940s.  Not sure when that shoulder belay method went out, but you see it in Milner several times.

We’re executing a bit if thread drift here. I agree that some/many of Milner’s pictures were likely taken in the 1930s, but I don’t believe that techniques, equipment, or attitudes changed immediately after WW 2. Those changes really started happening in the 1950s, and even then it was a slow process.

My best is "Through My Lens: A Photographic Memoir" by Alf Kumalo