Close Calls

I'll keep it simple - I LOVE THIS BOOK.I've only been a participant in the activity of rock climbing for a little over a year but this is by far the most entertaining book I have read. You do not need to be interested in the sport of climbing to get hours of reading enjoyment from these stories.The tales are brief and obviously real (some are too stupid to have been merely thought up). A few examples: the couple that have sex in a hammock at 3,000 feet...and end up hanging naked from their ankles after the hammock rips, the 400 Lbs. rabbi who climbs up halfway and then decides it is time to rapidly return to the ground...and the poor belayer who is not ready for the "weight" of the matter, and the climber who plummets off of a mountain only to have his rope ensnare in a tree and save his life...mere feet from the ground.The stories will make you smile and maybe even laugh out loud. A nice bonus is the inclusion of a Commentary follow-up and a Prevention Tip at the end of each narrative.So keep both feet on the ground and leave the perilous and often entertaining climbing to the wacky, wild, and way way too stupid!

This book brought me to tears. The only bad part about this book is that it will have you laughing so hard, others around you will be annoyed. (buy them the book unless they aren't climbing bums)

All who tiptoe up steep rock need to be humbled frequently, though preferably non-fatally. John Long does this most ably in "Close Calls". Also, I suspect this book was a great excuse to air campfire stories. I hope there's a volume two! I do have a friend, by the by, who wants to attempt an amorous encounter (NOT with me) in the middle of a Tyrolean Traverse in the High Peaks of Pinnacles National Monument. I'm going to give him this book immediately.

John Long's narrative style shines in this light-hearted survey of desperate climbing situations. Many climbing writers take themselves so seriously that their writing becomes too pedantic to relate to actual climbing practice. Close Calls uses humor to bridge the gap between diligence and epic, and gets meaningful lessons across in the midst of the goofiness. Tami Knight's distinctive caricatures add a hysterically funny dimension, with such narrative accuracy that most of the illustrations make it hard to concentrate on the writing. This collection would be a welcome adition to any climber's library.