Mountaineering - The Freedom of the Hills

The Old Testament of mountaineering. If you are just starting out this has so much good knowledge. Every time I pick it up I get a little nugget that I didn’t know before. You have to walk before you run and this will help you get there. Everyone should have a copy of this if you spend time in the mountains.

If you are a climber, this is your bible. I am not a climber, but I sure admire them and I sure like to ski really steep stuff, and that sometimes borders on the realm of climbing. Buy this book and learn all you need to know to stay safe on those border line runs where you spend the entire time questioning why you find this activity fun.

This is an essential book for technical skills like glacial travel and scrambling and rappelling. Mountaineers have been putting this together since the 50s and it shows. Build the skills, like the Mountaineers basic students, and then you can move to fast and light once you actually know knots and principles. Plus, nothing shouts "I'm a climber" like this on your coffee table.

The “bible” nickname is apt in many good ways, since Freedom of the Hills possesses an ancient lineage, draws on the impressive wisdom and knowledge from its authorship, covers a wide range of topics, and is very lengthy.
However, just like you wouldn’t want to model your entire lifestyle on the stories of the Hebrew Patriarchs, you wouldn’t want to model your light & fast ski touring on this book.
Plus the Volken et al. “Backcountry Skiing” addresses almost everything related to mountaineering that a ski mountaineer needs to know.
But still, this is such a useful resource, even down to topics like almost every kind of knot/hitch you could conceivably ever use for any situation in the mountains.
So if you want a comprehensive ski mountaineering library, then you still need to buy this book!