Alpine Reviews

I like the way the author uses anecdotes and examples to help me understand principles of mental training that other books make too complex. I've applied the techniques in this book and they really work!

This book has been a long time coming. Dr. Selder provided me with the mental skills and techniques to enhance my physical performance on the slopes. He has the ability to break down the complex workings of mental moguls and translate them into easy steps that I can follow to improve both my skill level and my overall enjoyment of this great sport. I got a copy for my brother so he can keep up with me in Mammoth this New Year.

Like one of the previous reviewers, I thought there was too much time devoted to "weight your outside ski" as well as the fact that everything was repeated about 3-5 times in slightly different language. So if you are skiing green runs with ease, blue runs ok and want to move to black, this book will probably help. If you are skiing black and double diamond runs and want to improve, I would suggest Elling's book All-Mountain Skier : The Way to Expert Skiing. The redeeming factors of the book which got it 3 stars from me were the chapters on advanced techniques although Elling's book still wins out in powder, crud, etc...

If, like me, you desire a book that breaks down each aspect of skiing into bite size, easily digestible pieces and then continue to build on what is already practiced and learned, then this is the book for you. The author is methodical in his explanations and the writing is clear, straight forward, engaging and fresh. The section on bumps alone is worth the price of the book. Again, this is an excellent intermediate skier book. Those more advanced may wish to look elsewhere. Bottom line; read the book and you are sure to improve.

Simply put, this is the best book on skiing technique. I'm in awe that there is a negative review of this book. Despite its title, this book covers concepts from novice to expert technique. Lito's writing style is both engaging and very informative. He can convey complicated concepts with ease. This book not only covers how to coorect and advance your ski technique but also why you are performing the exercises, motions, etc., how they translate into carved (and skidded), controlled turns in various terrain. I am a very strong skier but I still frequently turn to this book to understand small corrections in my technique. Yes, this book can be repetitive but this helps to ingrain the concepts Lito is teaching. This book convinced me to sign up for his Aspen course which is also excellent.

A nice collection of information but for what I was looking for the web had as much information on what was where and how much it cost. This book is not worth as much as others becuase it lacks the reader input and real experience of going and being there. Most info can be picked up from travel guides and brochures.

This is a wonderful resource with loads of candid opinions on what's great and not so great in the Alps. It is an overview and does not go into tremendous detail on any one resort, but if you are trying to pick from the overwhelming range of choices, this book will definitely help. Be aware, the book is written from a decidedly British point of view so it places much value on some criteria that American skiers may not value quite as highly (i.e. whether on-mountain dining is of a high enough quality). Also, don't rely on the section covering US resorts for anything other than a humerous glimpse at how the Brits size up places like Vail and Lake Tahoe (both criticized for "lack of non-skiing activities"). There are no photos and the mountain maps give only the broadest idea of the mountains and terrain offer, but the individual writeups are worth their weight in gold.

by far the best way to review and select resorts for your purpose. very easy to use, accurate and INDEPENDANT.
money well spent to ensure you go to the best place for you.

From the time this story surfaced in late 1991, my curiosity about this "Iceman" began. In dribs and drabs the story unfolded in various publications, both scientific and layman, around the world. Not until this extrordinary tale of the life of a man (who might seemingly be related to nearly every human being alive today) reached the capable hands of the author Brenda Fowler, have so many of my questions been well answered.

From the available facts to scientific analysis. From belief to fantasy, Fowler takes us on a well constructed 5,300 (and 9) year investigation to uncover who this Iceman was, how he lived and how he died. Her ability to explore and expose this millenia old mystery of this "person" and to follow closely the methods of the scientists, the goals of the politicians, the disinformation of the doubters and those motivated by their own egregious self aggradizement is truely a wonderous read.

Notwithstanding my interest in this topic, I would encourage anyone with curriosity about our past to read this book. This is not a story about a people or some time in history. It is about one man. A man who was kind enough to stay virtually intact, frozen in ice (and time) for 5,300 years.

If you are like me, let your fantasy's run wild and imagine what this mans life must have been like. He could have been your great(172x)-grandfather.

Brenda Fowler's Iceman takes the reader on a beautifully described journey into the Austrian and Italian Alps where hikers unwittingly discover what could be, what SHOULD be, one of the most interesting sociological and scientific finds to date -- the 5300 year old mummified corpse of a man. Fowler is able to shed intriguing if glaring light on the unsavory combination of ego, politics, money and science. She gives readers an intimate portrait of the behind the scenes struggle to find a balance between preserving this historic find and uncovering meaningful information about him. Iceman reads more like a suspense novel than scientific text book and is captivating from page one. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a great story.

One year ago I read this book, transfixed by the writing. Fowler clearly got the science of the subject material better than "The Man in the Ice" (which I bought as soon as it came out.)

As an engineer, and student of the development of both the sciences and the technologies, it is often amazing how little purity exists in new developments. Certainly, if one of the large projects - I've been on a few with international media coverage - is analyzed from the inside, it looks VERY different than the media hype or soundbites.

Fowler wrote a book so filled with hooks that it will affix itself to anyone with a scintilla of curiosity, but whether she consciously considered this or not, her result was not only the history of one man dying high on a mountain glacier several thousand years ago and how he lived, but the story of how WE live in the same environs NOW, and how institutions of science can be rendered impotent by their own internal dynamics as amplified by the various needs of individual researchers.

The Iceman's society was clearly fragmented and very rudimentary. There is no way to know if he even had much of a language, but we who live in the 21st century have benefitted from thousands of years of written history, the development of science, technology, and government/society... and, quite frankly, we almost botched this incredible discovery.

It's a wonder that the Iceman wasn't sold to a rendering plant and turned into food pellets for mad cows!

I guess if you don't want to know anything about the present state of our world society and why people would even BE in that area now, this would be pretty disrupting to you. It would require skimming through many pages of 'inconsequential' information to get what you'd really want: a time travel experience without knowledge of the society that produced the time machine or the technology of the time machine itself.

It's rare enough to find a book that GETS the story of a present day development correctly, but one that gets the overall structure of something like Iceman... is... well, almost as rare as the Icemen himself.

I liked this book, but I guessed both the identity of the murder and two basic plot twists (I won't tell you which ones so I don't spoil it for you) before I was even halfway through with the book...

Alpine native, Dani Marsh, returns to her hometown to make a movie. Shortly after she arrives, her ex-husband is found dead. Does her return tie in with the murder? Was her movie star boyfriend jealous? Emma Lord, owner of the local newspaper, works on this and other possible motives in her effort
to track down the murderer. Her friend, Milo, the local sheriff, has a new girlfriend, but despite this, he and Emma work together to uncover the killer. This is a good addition to the series.

If you need a light fun read this is definitly the series for you. This was a hard book to put down. If you live in a small town you see your own local characters popping up on the pages. The Alpine books are a great escape from heavy fiction. I'd recommend the complete series.

This book is decent, but the Illustrated Guide to Snowboarding is a much more in-depth and well written book. It is also more entertaining with funny drawings and tips. This book really only skims the surface on all the areas you need to start snowboarding.

I picked up this book hoping to add to my small bag of tricks. While definitely aimed at the beginner, there is enough solid info in here to help most any unsponsored rider improve their technique, even lucky locals such as yours truly (Tahoe is my backyard, Mount Rose my resort of choice).

The main thing I got out of this book was improving the mechanics of my turns, plus the inspiration to work on my ollies and 360's.

I do wish I had gotten my hands on this book earlier in my snowboarding career. Might have saved me from a few faceplants.

This book is great for begginers and also explains advanced tricks and techniques like methods, spins, cliff drops, carving and explains a little about racing and competative snowboarding. It also gives you usefull info like what to eat before you go, warm-ups, getting on and off chairlifts, ect.

When Crystal Bird begins publishing a newspaper called Crystal Clear and launches personal attacks on Emma Lord, Emma is understandably upset. The Alpine Advocate editor goes to talk to Crystal, but doesn't seem to make much of an impact. After she leaves, Crystal is found dead in her hot tub. Early speculation is that it is suicide but Sheriff Milo Dodge discovers that homocide is more likely. Suspicion falls on Emma, and she begins to investigate the murder in self-defense. This "cozy" contains the usual high jinks by Emma's newspaper staff and the interrelationships of Alpine which are only discernible by Emma's sidekick, Vida. This is another good Emma Lord Mystery.

I love this series by Mary Daheim. Whenever a new Alpine book comes out, I make sure I clear my schedule and set aside time for just reading, as if setting aside time for a visit from old and dear friends. I'm not in agreement with who Emma chooses as her "man", but it's something I just have to accept and hope she'll get smart and forget about him. I look forward for future books with Milo, Vida, Leo, Emma and the wonderful town of Alpine. I would highly recommend this book.

I just love the setting of these books, the characters come alive on each page. The mystery is pretty easy to figure out, but that does not detract from the overall warmth and coziness of the book.

Being an avid reader of the Alpine series, I couldn't wait to sink my literary teeth into this new edition.
The first of many shocks came when Mary Daheim had the main character Emma Lord sabotaging her rivals car to scoop him on the murder story. vida and Milo stayed true to their persona, yet Leo seemed to have turned into a meek confused man who didn't know where his loyalties laid.
the ending is one that is fast becoming typical in the female mystery world and was highly disappointing.
Aside from all this... the writing is crisp and just as witty as all her previous works. Something is lacking in the story telling that makes you wonder if she just threw the ending together to meet a deadline.
Should you read this latest installment? YES! You need to take the good with the bad and the clear with the confusing to stay in touch with two of the craziest ladies, Emma Lord and Vida Runkel.

The Alpine series is fantastic reading. I have enjoyed all of the Emma Lord mysteries. The ending to this book, however, was disappointing to me. I had hoped that Tom would have just "one more family crisis" that would cause him to again leave Emma. Then, after struggling with all of her emotions from all of the years past, she would decide that she needed to move forward in her life without Tom, without looking back.

I love the Emma Lord series. I also agree with another reader
that I also had hoped that Emma would tell Tom goodbye and go
on with her life. His death is an anti-climax. I hope she doesn't
mourn him for the rest of the series.

Right on the Edge of Crazy is a good insight to life on the road for ski racers. Yes, it talks about snow conditions (see previous negative comments) however, this information is essential to fully understand the environment in which these guys were racing. Any skier knows that weather alters conditions and therein alter one's approach to skiing. The book was entertaining and enjoyable. I look forward to reading one about the current team.

I am an English teacher at a ski academy in Maine, and I read this book because my husband owns it, my sons race, and it looked interesting. I want to purchase it in quantity, but it's out of print! Help! It's an awesome real life account of the life of an alpine racer.

Downhill ski racing has to be the most awesome sport on the planet: racers routinely scream down mountains at speeds that would make a new Lexus shimmy and shudder; it's nothing for racers to fly a hundred and fifty feet in the air at seventy miles per hour;they pull g's like fighter pilots, and without the benefit of a plane. Mike Wilson captures all that here, plus the personalities and psyches of men whose profession leaves them very little room for error. Easily the best book I've read on the sport.

This book fills an interesting niche, focusing on alpine scrambles instead of the fourth and fifth class routes that fill the bulk of most climbing guidebooks. As such, it is a great resource when thinking about where to go on your next trip. Unfortunately, the information in the book is often neither detailed nor accurate enough to rely on; I find myself having to use Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide and the Climber's Guide to the Olympic Mountains to supplement it for specific and reliable route details.

As a case in point, consider scramble number 74, "The Brothers": The GPS coordinates listed are wrong, ironic for an author that touts her "extensive experience with map and compass and GPS use." (The coordinates are in the wrong UTM Grid Zone; if you assume that she meant 10T instead of 10U, one is off by nearly a quarter mile.) Some of the coordinates that she does provide aren't particularly useful - obvious sites such as the trailhead, the summit and a large lake on the route - while those that would be useful, such as where the route crosses "The Nose," are omitted. Worst of all, the actual scramble description is cursory, as short as the trailhead driving directions.

Consider this book if you're looking for ideas for alpine scrambles - some in here are true classics. If you do buy the book, however, look for better route descriptions elsewhere, and turn a skeptical eye to trip details, lest they get you in trouble out in the woods.

Goldman's book contains a lot of interesting trip suggestions. Sure, anyone doing much climbing in the Cascades should own Beckey. I also recommend Jeff Smoot's "Climbing Washington's Mountains". And if you can get it, snag a copy of Dallas Kloke's "One Day Winter Climbs In The Cascades". But this book also has a place in the library of a scrambler.

My main objection is the limitation Goldman seems to place on her trips. The hardest climbs are just a little too easy. She would really open things up to another great 50 climbs if she were willing to go just a little bit farther into the Class 3 climbing arena.

Great book. I just wanted to say that I disagree with the review that says get the Beckey books instead. I love the Becky books for their comprehensiveness and the sense of history of the range that they offer, but the route descriptions for scrambling destinations in Beckey tend to be sketchy and often dated. I think this book is better for most of the the scrambling ascents that are described. For example, for Mt. Index, Beckey recommends skirting Lake Serene and then ascending Index from the far end of the Lake. This book describes the approach from the Index-Persis ridge, which is easier and safer.