ALPENGLOW
The finest climbs on the 4000m peaks of the alps

Author: Ben Tibbetts

Publisher: Ben Tibbetts

Publication: 2019: ISBN: 978-1-9161231-0-6

Reviewed by Peter Finch

Ben Tibbetts may be well known to AAC(UK) members. He is an IFMGA mountain guide and a photographer, artist and writer. His exploits in remote corners of the world are many. Over a 10 year period he became only the second British climber to ascend all 82 alpine peaks over 4000m, and Alpenglow is his record of those ascents.

That dry opening paragraph does not do justice to what is an extraordinary book! Rather than simply bagging the peaks by the classic routes, Tibbetts chose the most interesting or beautiful approaches, often involving traverses. Perhaps surprisingly the overall grades for many of the climbs are AD or below but some are much higher. For example, the Cresta di Santa Caterina route on Nordend is graded as TD with technical sections to V.

For each climb Tibbetts gives the history of first ascents, a narrative of his own journey, and a guide to the route including conditions, approach, descent and equipment. However, at 320 pages larger than A4 and weighing 2.25Kg (with a price to match) this is definitely not for the rucksack. Indeed, the stunning photographs and pencil drawings, some with the routes superimposed, make this very much a coffee table book to be devoured slowly whilst marvelling at the sheer beauty of the alpine scenery.

The photographs are the outstanding feature of this book. Some 300,000 shots taken with a full frame camera to maximise quality have been whittled down to a superb selection. One has to feel sympathy for the climbing companions who were dragged up peaks before dawn only to have to sit around waiting for the light conditions to be perfect! The pencil drawings and maps are similarly of high quality.

The personal narrative turns a beautifully illustrated guide book into a human story to which anyone with experience of the alps can relate. Here are descriptions of the sheer exhilaration of just being in the mountains and then achieving an objective, tempered occasionally with the realities of weather, crowded huts, fear, fatigue and altitude sickness. The whole of the text is extremely well written.

After more than a year during which the mountains have been off-limits to AAC(UK) members, Alpenglow is perhaps the salve to the soul, reminding us of what has been and what we can aspire to now that the alps are (almost) available to us again.

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