The Stone Masters
Title: The Stone Masters: California Rock Climbers in the Seventies
Publisher: T. Adler Books/Stonemaster Press
Specs: Hardcover, 196 pages
I thought this book was a recent release but it was released in the fall of 2009, but it’s new to me and probably you too, so let’s just roll with it ok?
I find this book exciting. Most books on the subject of outdoor sports are poorly designed. They capture the facts, but not the spirit. This one captures the spirit. It’s a beautiful presentation of a hidden niche of rock climbing history. We’re given entry into these climbers’ world — circa the 1970′s — through the book’s epic photography and its restless enthusiasm. It’s exciting in the same way that Don James’ Pre-War Surfing Photographs book was (that book, by the way, is amazing), which is to say that the photographs were taken by those who were there and the things they did were solely for their own amusement. I’m looking forward to seeing future titles from publisher Stonemaster press.
