“This is a fun and informative cookbook that will connect camp cooks to the land. Its compact size encourages novice or experienced adventurers to carry it along on their backcountry trips.” Paul Geddes reviews The Well-Fed Backcountry Adventurer: Easy Trail-tested Campfire Recipes Inspired by 1920s Mountaineers by Bryan Thompson (Toronto: Canadian Expedition Heritage Society, 2024) $7.99 / 9781068946202
“There are about 115 hot springs mentioned in this book, some well-known and easy to access, others much visited but more of a trudge to get to (boat or plane needed), and some more recently discovered and worth the trek to visit. Most of the hot springs discussed in the book give the route to reach the place, fine photographs, and excellent primers and teasers in what will be seen when there.” Ron Dart reviews Hot Springs of Western Canada: A Complete Guide (4th edition) by Glenn Woodsworth & David Woodsworth (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023) $26.95 / 9781990776441
2024 donors to the British Columbia Review, a thank you from Richard Mackie.
“Whistler Hiking is divided into three main sections with, understandably so, the front stage given to a detailed, visual, and evocative approach to the shorter, medium, and longer treks in the Whistler area.” Ron Dart reviews Whistler Hiking by Marc Bourdon (Squamish: Quickdraw Publications, 2024) $34.95
“Consider the evocative words of the book’s subtitle: ‘A Year Inside the Life of a Chronic Adventurer.’ The three key words? ‘inside,’ ‘life,’ and ‘chronic.’ Why? As much as this is the account of three long expeditions, it is also a frank and supercharged self-portrait. Holding back is not something Wolf does. On the contrary.” Theo Dombrowski reviews Two Springs, One Summer: a year inside the life of a chronic adventurer, by Frank Wolf (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2024) $28 / 9781771606844
“I have, for many years, been taken by mountaineers who are also exquisite photographers.” Accomplished climber Ron Dart reviews Aloft: Canadian Rockies Aerial Photography by Paul Zizka (Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2021) $35 / 9781771606929 & Mountains of the Coast: Photographs of Remote Corners of the Coast Mountains by John Baldwin (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 1999) $36.95 / 9781550172133
“On July 4, 2021, Greg hiked to the summit of Frosty Mountain, the highest peak in the park. From this high perch he could look out on the panorama below, the terrain in which he had spent five months searching for Jordan.” Paul Geddes reviews Called by Mother Earth: A Father’s Search for His Son
by Greg F. Naterer (St. John’s: Breakwater Books, 2024) $24.95 / 9781778530142
“To See What He Saw is the work of many a decade and a packed tome of MacDonald’s paintings in O’Hara but the text, in this solid and sound book, reveals much about the history of O’Hara, MacDonald’s vision of depicting the weather seasons, mountains, lakes, cabins, and trees (occasionally people) but also the friendships developed when in O’Hara.” Ron Dart reviews To See What He Saw: J.E.H. MacDonald and the O’Hara Years: 1924-1932 by Stanley Munn and Patricia Cucman (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, in collaboration with the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, 2024) $65.00 / 9781773272504
“I have been fortunate to do many a trek in the mountains with Arnold, him always with a sketch pad and, when resting, pad out and pencil at work.” Ron Dart reviews Alpine Anatomy: The Mountain Art of Arnold Shives
Bill Jeffries, Darrin Martens, and Glenn Woodsworth (eds.)(Vancouver: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby Art Gallery, and Tricouni Press, 2012) $39.95 / 9780981153612
“Don Munday and his wife Phyllis Munday are best known as first generation west coast pioneers in mountaineering, but Don was also a fine writer. ” Ron Dart reflects on several aspects of mountaineering life in his “Three Missives from the Peaks”
“In Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer, Rick Antonson takes us on a trip through time as he recounts a multi-day excursion on historic train, the Rocky Mountaineer.” Natalie Virginia Lang reviews Train Beyond the Mountains: Journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer (Vancouver: Greystone Books, April 2023) $34.95 / 9781771644860
When we launched The British Columbia Review — then The Ormsby Review — in September 2016, little did we expect that seven years later we’d post our 2000th review. I’m grateful to everyone — reviewers, publishers, authors, booksellers, and readers — for making it such a success and promoting BC writers, writing, and culture. It…
Read more No. 2000 for the BC Review!
The Boy and the Mountain: A Father, His Son, and a Journey of Discovery By Torbjørn Ekelund (Translated by Becky L. Crook) Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2023 $27.95 / 9781771645096 Reviewed by Ron Dart * The Boy and the Mountain was originally published in Norwegian in 2017 and translated into English in 2023. Ekelund has, thus…
Read more ‘Trek by father and son’
Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past by Brett Popplewell Toronto: Harper Collins, 2023 $25.99 / 9781443457859 Reviewed by Daniel Gawthrop * British Columbia has long been a magnet for eccentric new settlers with mysterious backgrounds who come here seeking to reinvent themselves. Thanks to an investigative journalist from Ontario,…
Read more 1974 Marathon man like no other
ESSAY: Canadian Mountain Culture and Mountaineering by Ron Dart * And sliding on the mountain snow, Dear Friend, we’ll let our worries go. -Alexander Pushkin, “Winter Morning” Great things are done when men and mountains meet; this is not done by jostling in the street. -William Blake, Gnomic Verses The…
Read more 1947 Canadian mountain culture and mountaineering
Instead: Navigating the Adventures of a Childfree Life – A Memoir by Maria Coffey Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books, 2023 $28.00 / 9781771606400 Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore * Maria Coffey who is based in Victoria, British Columbia and Catalonia, Spain, started travelling when she was a teenager. Various circumstances including her keen sense of adventure,…
Read more 1946 Choice, responsibility, consequence
Stikine Odyssey: From Adventure to Activism with The Great River by Peter Rowlands Victoria: FriesenPress, 2023 $24.49 / 9781775238348 Reviewed by Trevor Marc Hughes * What is it that draws adventurers to the Stikine River? For me, in 2012, it was a desire to see this beautiful, and integral, landscape in northern British Columbia before…
Read more 1922 Irresistible Stikine
Instructions for a Flood: Reflections on Story, Geography and Connection by Adrienne Fitzpatrick Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2023 $24.00 / 9781773861128 Reviewed by Catherine Owen * Gentle memories. That’s the descriptor that first flowed over me at the close of reading this short, pared set of reflections on land, water, Indigeneity, history, time, people and…
Read more 1891 ‘Standing in the river’
Capturing the Summit: Hamilton Mack Laing and the Mount Logan Expedition of 1925 by Trevor Marc Hughes Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2023 $24.95 / 9781553806806 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater * When naturalist/cinematographer Hamilton Mack Laing was commissioned by the National Museum of Canada to accompany the expedition making the first ascent of Mount Logan in 1925,…
Read more 1870 Mack Laing in Alaska
The Power of Dreams: 27 Years Off-grid in a Wilderness Valley by Dave and Rosemary Neads Surrey: Hancock House Publishers, 2022 $24.95 / 9780888397188 Review by Phyllis Reeve * A couple built a house in the wilderness of Precipice Valley, on the ancient trade route linking BC’s Interior Plateau with the coast, and stayed for…
Read more 1837 A dose of planetary reality