We Like Donations!

We get some great donations at the library. One of our patrons was cleaning out her attic a few weeks ago and found some early issues of Up Rope, a discontinued publication of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. The donation included several issues we were missing in our reference collection, including the first ten that were published! The first issues, dating from 1944 and '45, were in wonderful condition and would have otherwise been impossible to find. We're having them custom-bound into one nice volume.

Please consider the AAC Library if you're giving away your old mountaineering and climbing books and journals. Give us a call at 303/384-0112. Thank you!

New Resources

We've added a sidebar to this blog called "Books by AAC Members." Because the staff at the American Alpine Journal cannot review all of the books that authors and publishers send them (they receive dozens during the course of a year), we want to be sure authors who are AAC members get special mention.

Take a look at a new resource called Teton Climbing History: The Summit Register Archive. This site contains a collection of digital images of the Grand Teton National Park Summit Register Archive. The summit registers were maintained from about the late-1920s into the 1980s and they form a unique repository of Teton climbing history. We've added the archive to the "Climbing Resources" sidebar on this blog and the AAC's Online Climbing Resources webpage.

NEW DVD

Dosage IV

New Blog Feature!

You can now find newly cataloged books on the library blog. You can either visit the “New Books” section on this blog or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks to our colleagues at LibraryThing for making this new feature possible.

We'll make a blog post at the end of each month to annouce new DVD titles. If you subscribe to both the New Books and blog feeds, you’ll know right away when we’ve received new stuff. There will be an announcement in this month’s AAC E-News as well.

Using a feed reader is the best way to keep up with what’s going on in the library. Feed readers pull information from websites, blogs, and other web-based mediums into one place so you don’t have to bookmark and manually visit sites. If you're an AAC or CMC member who doesn't already use a reader but would like to learn how, we would be happy to show you. Just shoot us a line at library@americanalpineclub.org.

In the coming months, you’ll begin to see changes in the library’s catalog that will allow for tag-based browsing, book recommendations, ratings, and reviews. Stay tuned!

The Questions We Get

The library has only a few resources for mountaineering statistics. We're fortunate to have Accidents in North American Mountaineering and the Himalayan Database at our disposal, but these aren't enough. As mountaineering and climbing accidents become increasingly popular news (such as last winter's Mount Hood and Fowler/Boskoff incidences), we're getting more requests for statistical information.

Year to date, the library staff has answered 50% more reference questions than at this point last year. Inquiries related to mountaineering statistics account for much of that increase. Here are a few examples:

• How many people summitted Everest in 2001?
• How many deaths were reported on Everest in 1986?
• Who is the oldest North American to summit Everest?
• Where can I find a list of the world's highest peaks that are still unclimbed?

Please email us at library@americanalpineclub.org or comment to this post if you're aware of resources for statistical information related to mountaineering. We appreciate your help!

Construction Update

Just wanted to show how construction of the Bradford Washburn Mountaineering Museum is impacting the library. As you may already know, the museum is being built right next door to the library. It is a partnership between the American Alpine Club, Colorado Mountain Club, and National Geographic Society.

This temporary wall was built to minimize dust and noise in the library as the original wall behind it comes down. Over the next few months, a set of doors will be installed that will replace the original wall. The doors will open into a brand-new reading room that the library and museum will use as a shared resource. The reading room will allow access into the museum.

In the meantime, the museum is really shaping up! It is scheduled to open in late winter 2008 and will be one of the world's leading resources for mountains, mountaineering, and mountain cultures. Check out their blog.

Historic Ascent In India

Our colleagues from the Calcutta section of The Himalayan Club do a wonderful job keeping us informed of mountaineering news in their part of the world. We've received a press release from the HC announcing that the first Indian civilian ascent of Mt. Nilkanth (6595m) has been achieved. Another highlight of this expedition is that the climb was achieved in a single stretch of 57 hours!

Located in the state of Uttaranchal in India, there have only been four successful ascents of this difficult mountain. A full report will be published soon, but you can learn more here.

This news follows less than a year after the HC's ascent of Mt. Kamet (7756m), which was organized to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first successful ascent of that mountain.

The Himalayan Club is a major contributor to the AAC library's archive of historic expedition reports. The HC is also largely responsible for our complete set of The Himalayan Journal, the HC's annual publication. The Journal has been published since 1929 and ours may be the only complete set in the United States.

Above are two photos from the expedition that were taken near the summit of Nilkanth (courtesy of The Himalayan Club). Congratulations to all the team members!

UPDATED: The full report has arrived at the library. Please contact Gary at glandeck@americanalpineclub.org if you would like to have a copy