Alpine Americas: An Odyssey Along the Edge of Two Continents

This stunning book by Soot and Mellor (who previously joined their efforts in Adirondacks Alive) combines superlative photos and insightful text in a tribute to the beauty of the 10,000-mile range of mountains that start in Arctic Alaska and end at Cape Horn, 600 miles from Antarctica. This beautifully printed photographic celebration deserves a wide general audience for its presentation of the majesty of the western edge of two continents-from the Yukon through the Canadian Rockies, America's Rocky Mountains, Mexico, the Andes, and ending in South America. Mellor's text captures the essence of each of Soot's photo, such as his description of the Arctic summit of Denali, where ""the air swirls with blinding ice pellets."" This exploration of the connections and differences across the Americas substantiates Mellor's belief that, ""the more we know about the earth on a grand scale, the better we understand our own small place on it.""