24 February 2009

Alpin Ice - Review

By Markuz Lindgren

Author: Mario Sertori

Alpine Ice, The 600 best ice falls in the Alps

(France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Italy)


ISBN: 978-88-87890-83-9

445 pages.

Language: English



The authors intention is to gather all best of the vast amount of beautiful ice climbs in the alps. With “the best” he looks for the routes that the local guide books notice as “worth the trip” climbs. All of this sums up to 600 routes.


This book is a great teaser and buy for everyone who want's to travel to the alps, or live there, to get an overview of where to go, what kind of routes there are, and what suits your taste in ice. There are good information such as approach, altitude, length, descent, aspect, difficulty and notes about the routes which makes it the perfect overview of all the routes. But since there are no ascent information about the routes one less experienced may consider buying the local ice guide before getting on the more extreme climbs. Since the routes are in the alps Sertorio has included the grade of total effort as a compliment to the technical difficulty.


Some areas I know have more classics and well worth the trip climbs, but covering them all in one book like this is not possible. So Sertorio has made his own selection, a good one, to try and cover more areas. If you find some area in particular more interesting I would suggest buying the local guide book.


This book is the perfect overview for everyone who wants to climb pure ice routes in the Alps. Everyone should buy this to get the big picture and see the vast possibilities of great ice climbing, instead of buying every local guidebook there is just to find the right area or climb for you.

And remember, it is not an alpine climbing book, this book is dedicated the pure ice falls in the Alps!

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