The high Sierra : a love story /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A "sublime" and "radically original" exploration of the Sierra Nevadas, the best mountains on Earth for hiking and camping, from New York Times bestselling novelist Kim Stanley Robinson (Bill McKibben, Gary Snyder).

Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada mountains during the summer of 1973. He returned from that encounter a changed man, awed by a landscape that made him feel as if he were simultaneously strolling through an art museum and scrambling on a jungle gym like an energized child. He has returned to the mountains throughout his life--more than a hundred trips--and has gathered a vast store of knowledge about them. The High Sierra is his lavish celebration of this exceptional place and an exploration of what makes this span of mountains one of the most compelling places on Earth.



Over the course of a vivid and dramatic narrative, Robinson describes the geological forces that shaped the Sierras and the history of its exploration, going back to the indigenous peoples who made it home and whose traces can still be found today. He celebrates the people whose ideas and actions protected the High Sierra for future generations. He describes uniquely beautiful hikes and the trails to be avoided. Robinson's own life-altering events, defining relationships, and unforgettable adventures form the narrative's spine. And he illuminates the human communion with the wild and with the sublime, including the personal growth that only seems to come from time spent outdoors.



The High Sierra is a gorgeous, absorbing immersion in a place, born out of a desire to understand and share one of the greatest rapture-inducing experiences our planet offers. Packed with maps, gear advice, more than 100 breathtaking photos, and much more, it will inspire veteran hikers, casual walkers, and travel readers to prepare for a magnificent adventure.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. xv)
• My Sierra Life (1): Not to Touch the Earth (p. 3)
• Geology (1): Batholith and Pluton (p. 11)
• My Sierra Life (2): Break On Through (p. 19)
• Sierra People (1): The First People (p. 29)
• My Sierra Life (3): Artists in the Back Country (p. 44)
• Geology (2): Basins (p. 58)
• My Sierra Life (4): How We Met (p. 65)
• Sierra People (2): John Muir (p. 69)
• My Sierra Life (5): The Pinball Years (p. 82)
• Geology (3): Crests and Divides; Also Psychogeology (1): Outside and Inside (p. 92)
• Snow Camping (1) Freezing Our Butts (p. 96)
• Sierra People (3) Clarence King (p. 105)
• Names (1) The Good (p. 113)
• Snow Camping (2) Close to the Edge (p. 118)
• Moments of Being (1) A Sierra Day: Morning in Camp (p. 125)
• My Sierra Life (6) Crossing Mather Pass (p. 130)
• Sierra People (4) Mary Austin (p. 134)
• Psychogeology (2) Altitude and Foreshortening (p. 139)
• Sierra People (5) Mapping the Territory (p. 147)
• Geology (4) Fellfields (p. 152)
• Sierra People (6) Common Neighbors (p. 158)
• Moments of Being (2) A Sierra Day: Rambling and Scrambling (p. 165)
• My Sierra Life (7) Owls in the Blue (p. 179)
• Sierra People (7) The Sierra Club's Women (p. 187)
• Sierra People (8) The Fresno Crowd (p. 194)
• Routes (1) The Four Bad Passes (p. 199)
• Moments of Being (3) A Sierra Day: Sunset and Twilight (p. 209)
• My Sierra Life (8) Robbie You're Wasting Your Precious Youth (p. 215)
• The Swiss Alps (1) Kistenpass (p. 220)
• Snow Camping (3) The Transantarctics (p. 241)
• Sierra People (9) Norman Clyde (p. 250)
• Names (2) The Bad (p. 254)
• Routes (2) The Six Good Passes (p. 260)
• Geology (5) Canyons and Massifs (p. 265)
• Moments of Being (4) A Sierra Day: Night in Camp (p. 271)
• Routes (3) Some West-Side Entries (p. 275)
• My Sierra Life (9) Gear Talk (p. 281)
• The Swiss Alps (2) My Ascent of the Matterhorn (p. 298)
• My Sierra Life (10) Return to the Sierra (p. 316)
• Moments Of Being (5) Close Calls (p. 322)
• Routes (4) Desolation (p. 329)
• Moments Of Being (6) A Sierra Day: Under the Tarp (p. 337)
• My Sierra Life (11) Heart Trouble (p. 340)
• Names (3) The Ugly (p. 348)
• Sierra People (10) Tree Line Artists (p. 353)
• Geology (6) Roof Pendants (p. 360)
• Sierra People (11) Fish and Frogs (p. 367)
• My Sierra Life (12) This Is the End (p. 372)
• Sierra People (12) Reclusive Neighbors (p. 376)
• Sierra People (13) The Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (p. 379)
• Sierra People (14) What Didn't Get Built; and Trail Phantoms (p. 385)
• Routes (5) Basins Have Characters (p. 392)
• Snow Camping (4) Extreme Housekeeping (p. 401)
• Sierra People (15) Gary Snyder (p. 413)
• Names (4) Naming Mount Thoreau (p. 419)
• Sierra People (16) Michael Blumlein (p. 433)
• Moments of Being (7) Late Desolation (p. 441)
• The Swiss Alps (3) Seeing Meru (p. 448)
• Routes (6) The High Route (p. 452)
• An Annotated Sierra Bibliography (p. 459)
• Moments of Being (8) The Monsoon Gets Stronger (p. 480)
• Moments of Being (9) Hetch Hetchy Restored (p. 494)
• Sierra People (17) Young People in Love (p. 498)
• My Sierra Life (13) Still Getting Lost (p. 502)
• Names (5) Corrections and Additions (p. 506)
• Sierra People (18) We Had a Good Shaman (p. 510)
• Moments of Being (10): How Big the World Becomes in a Wind (p. 513)
• Moments of Being (11) Have I Mentioned How Much I Like the Fall Colors Up Here? (p. 516)
• My Sierra Life (14) For Wilderness (p. 518)
• Moments of Being (12) The Thicket (p. 524)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This is Robinson's (The Ministry for the Future) first nonfiction book, but it is not a stark departure from his award-winning science fiction. Climate change and its consequences, as well as environmental activism, have regularly featured in Robinson's novels, so it is not surprising at all that hiking and the Sierra Nevada mountain range are the focus here. After one reads this, it actually seems that in order to fully understand Robinson and his science fiction, it's almost necessary to read his nonfiction. Robinson narrates the audiobook and vividly describes how time and geology shaped the Sierras, and the Sierras in turn shaped him, his friends, and other important historical figures who have had the good fortune to spend time exploring them. VERDICT This would be a good addition to any memoir or travel collection, but it's also a fun "armchair" hiking experience for those who typically don't care for outdoor sports. Pair the audio with the text version, which contains photographs and other supplemental materials to enhance the reading experience.--Ammi Bui

Publishers Weekly Review

Novelist Robinson (the Mars trilogy) vividly conveys his passion for the Sierra mountains in this enthralling blend of memoir, history, and science. Robinson first hiked in the Sierras on LSD in 1973 as a college student, an experience that sparked decades of return visits with friends and family members. His personal stories of treks there are interspersed with chapters on "Sierra People," including Clarence King, a 19th-century geologist, and Mary Austin, "one of the first nationally known women writers to come out of the American West." Robinson's discussions of what he terms psychogeology--the impact geology has on the mind-- are particularly memorable, as when he shares the feeling of being in a "golden zone" while walking in one of the Sierra's basins. Fans of Robinson's fiction will be delighted to find insights into his craft: he outlines, for example, the terrain's impact on his efforts to imagine the lives of humans' Paleolithic ancestors in the novel Shaman. There's humor on offer (Robinson suggests that a book providing routes to the Sierra Crest should just be full of blank pages: "just walk the crest--can't get higher than that!"), and his heartfelt rendering of intense emotional interactions with the natural world pulsates with life. Fans of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods will be captivated. (May)

Kirkus Book Review

A celebration of California's formidable mountain range. Award-winning science-fiction writer Robinson, one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment" in 2008, writes of his love affair with the Sierras, which began in the summer of 1973. A rising senior at the University of California, San Diego, he made his first treks through the mountains in the company of friends, "long-haired stoner hippie college students" who invigorated the trip with LSD. Although his early hikes were challenging because of heavy boots, snowshoes without poles, and inadequate sleeping bags, his enthusiasm never waned. Interweaving meandering memoir, practical travel guide, geological survey, and natural history, Robinson pays homage to the range's magnificence. Carved out by glaciers, the Sierras, he notes, are different from the Swiss Alps, where the author also has done a fair amount of climbing--even ascending the Matterhorn, tethered to a German-speaking guide. It's a feat he never would do again: "It's dangerous," he writes. "You could get killed." Backpacking in the Sierras, on the other hand, "is a safe and peaceful thing to do" even when not following marked trails. Besides describing geological formations, such as basins, which he cites as "its distinguishing feature" that make it a "golden zone" for hikers, Robinson offers a chronicle of a typical day, from "rambling and scrambling" in the morning to watching the luscious pink of alpenglow in the evening. Scrambling, he writes, is "problem-solving, keeping your balance, not falling down, and heading somewhere." Some chapters offer capsule biographies of people who have championed the Sierras, including John Muir, Clarence King, Mary Austin, Norman Clyde, and Gary Snyder. In others, Robinson describes the fauna, such as marmots, deer, bears, and pikas. Plopped in the middle is an annotated bibliography of guides, histories, memoirs, and a sampling of Robinson's own novels that feature the Sierras. There are also numerous photos from the author's collection. A colorful, digressive journey into incomparable terrain. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Forty Signs of Rain , The Years of Rice and Salt, and 2312 . In 2008, he was named a "Hero of the Environment" by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. He lives in Davis, California.