Mountains with a Difference

Description

Published by Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1951, 1st Edition, boards faded especially spine, No D/w, Good.   Geoffrey Winthrop Young (1876-1958) was a British climber, poet, educator and author of several notable books on mountaineering.  “One of the most influential figures in twentieth  century British climbing” (Neate).  This volume provides an account of his Alpine climbs, with an artificial leg, after 1918, Young having had a leg amputated in 1917 following an explosion during the War.  During the Edwardian period before World War I, Young made a number on notable ascents in the Alps, including routes on Monte Rosa, the Gspaltenhorn, the Weisshorn, the Taschhorn, as well as the Brouillard ridge on Mont Blanc in 1911 and the first complete traverse of the West Ridge of the Grandes Jorasses.  He became President of the Climbers Club in 1913, organised the Pen-y-Pass gatherings of the leading climbers of the day from 1907 to 1914, was President of the Alpine Club during World War II, and it was largely through his efforts that the British Mountaineering Council was established in 1945.  His books include The Roof Climber’s Guide to Trinity (1899), Wall and Roof Climbing (1905), Freedom: Poems (1914), Mountain Craft (1920), April and Rain: Poems (1923), On High Hills: Memories of the Alps (1927), Collected Poems (1936), The Grace of Forgetting (1953) and, with Sutton & Noyce, Snowdon Biography (1957).