As American as Rock Climbing and Baseball Rock climbing, once the exclusive province of the wealthy and the tough, has become increasingly popular in recent years. In American Rock: Region, Rock, and Culture in American Climbing, Don Mellor (Rock Climbing), a professional climbing guide and instructor for more than 20 years, surveys the history of the sport in the U.S. He explores the effects of regional variations in landscape and culture on approaches to climbing, whether in New England's White Mountains and New York's Adirondacks, the deserts and canyons of New Mexico and Arizona, Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, Utah's Zion, Oregon's Smith Rock or Washington's North Cascades. Climbers will enjoy it, but for light travel they may prefer to wait for the paperback. 42 b&w photos, one map. ( Oct.)
