I own several of Pat Ament's books (including his soul-baring autobiography), and I've enjoyed reading them all. John Gill has become virtually the patron saint of modern bouldering, and the many intriguing photographs in this book amply show why. Simply put, Gill was an entire generation ahead of his time--both in terms of his ability and his recognition of dynamic bouldering as the cutting edge of free climbing.

Ament's writing style here is more straightforward, and less dense, than in his other writings. Rather than attempt to speak for disparate voices, as he does in his Royal Robbins biography, Ament generally lets those voices speak for themselves in this book. The result is an expository style that makes for light, enjoyable reading.

Given the fascination that Ament and Gill share with the spiritual aspects of climbing, one would almost expect Ament to devote much of his attention to Gill's metaphysical philosophies (as did Jon Krakauer in his article on Gill that was later reprinted in _Eiger Dreams_). However, by concentrating on the events of Gill's life and his wanderings among the boulder patches of the American continent, Ament has painted a vivid picture of Gill as Johnny Appleseed, putting up routes--and leaving his legacy--everywhere. I think that is what Gill will most be remembered for, even if his spirituality makes him that much more a climbing guru.

I was first exposed to Master of Rock in the seventies with its first publication. Being at the time, a devoted climber and student of style, I spent hundreds of days in the Valley watching John Long, Ron Kauk, John Bachar, Barry Bates, Jim Bridwell, and all, polish their individual styles while applying everything and anything I could grasp from them. I could'nt walk past a door jam without cranking out the requisite finger tip pull-ups. I was 86'ed from Modesto Junior College's campus dozens of times while explaining to the authorities that "my frisbee is on the roof" . . . Imagine my surprise and joy to discover this relatively unknown man through Pat Ament's timely biography of John Gill. I was floored by this person who stayed so low-key yet with so much incredible climbing talent, in a sport not lacking in ego! For this book, Pat Ament deserves my gratitude for it is through this book that I found that element of climbing I was looking for. To me, John G! ill is still the consumate hero of motion on rock, however minimal that motion was. Yes, big walls were beckoning, Yosemite and Tuoloumne test pieces were fondling my emotion, and the smell and taste of my ruck sack permeated my VW Beetle, but to me, none of it mattered without style and art with every climb, as the end result. I grew up as a climber by studying the greatest students and teachers of style and ethics through the seventies. John Gill defined style before I called myself a climber. Thank you Patrick O. Ament for taking time from your study of climbing to write this book and allowing me to discover John Gill. I will always charish knowing who John Gill is now and who he was then.

The best from one of the most expressive writer, to ever put pen to paper, to describe his feelings , accomplishments,and relationships, while living a rockclimber's lifestyle.

High Over Boulder was given to me as a farewell gift by Pat Ament. It is a guide that I could have used the first day I rode into Boulder but 11 years later it serves me better as a guide to the greatest climbing experiences of my life. If you have ever been to Colorado or dream of that day, this book is a must!

I met Pat in 1987 during a short stay in Boulder. As a climbing enthusiast 19 years of age I asked everyone I met to be my climbing partner. Someone at church finally gave me a phone number to a Pat Ament who was thought to have climbed in his younger days. I did not know Pat or any of his history. Little did I know that Pat would take me on a journey "High Over Boulder." Over the next few weeks Flagstaff Mountain, Boulder Canyon, the Amphitheater, and Eldorado Canyon were opened to me. In a folklorish sort of way Pat would share memories and insight about each traverse and finger hold. He would mutter events of his youth with Royal Robins and Layton Kor. I learned of his friendship with Tom Frost & John Gill and how he mentored excellent climbers like Christian Griffith and Grey Ringsby. For the first time in my life I realized the modern climber must pay homage to the memories of the past. We won't get the chance for many first assents. We do not always climb "just because it is there". We climb because we want to bond with those that have gone before.

Two months later on my way out of Boulder I stopped by Pats one room pad to say my farewells. I thanked him for the time he had spent with me and the memories he had shared. From a shelf above his desk he pulled out a book. "Bryce, this is my personal Copy of a guide I put together some time ago." "I hope it will be of value to you some day." Little does he know the meaning of this simple gift.

Pat Ament obviously did a prodigious amount of research for Wizards of Rock, as it is a veritable encyclopedia of who climbed what, where, and when in America. It is eminently readable and entertaining, as well, although (as a reviewer in Climbing magazine noted) it isn't the sort of book you can sit down and read cover-to-cover. Furthermore, as is the case with Ament's biographies of Royal Robbins and John Gill, this book contains a treasure trove of interesting and rare photographs; two examples are (a) a photo of Warren Harding, Jerry Gallwas, Royal Robbins, and Don Wilson after their aborted attempt on Half Dome in 1955, and (b) a shot of Jim McCarthy leading a face climb in the Gunks that makes a gumby like me wonder how the heck he stayed on without sticky-rubber shoes.

Ament isn't shy about his own free-climbing accomplishments, which naturally makes one wonder if his motivation in writing this work wasn't partly to help secure for himself a place in the pantheon of 1960s-era rock "wizards." However, the fact remains that he was a cutting-edge free climber at the time, doing routes like Supremacy Crack and the Normal Route on the Slack in Yosemite when 5.11 was still a baseless rumor for most climbers. As the saying goes, when you can walk the walk, you can afford to talk the talk!

Nonetheless, Ament gives out plenty of credit where it is due, and, being from Colorado, he isn't completely fixated on climbs done in California, which truly makes Wizards of Rock a climbing history of the entire country.

I was the original publisher of Spirit of the Age--Pat Ament working with us as the author. Despite our past, business-oriented differences, I find Pat to consistently write with incredible creativity and accuracy, especially in the case of "Spirit of the Age."

As his publisher through a number of projects, I can categorically say that Pat Ament is one of the most creative talents I have ever encountered across ALL genre of writing. His ability to put the reader "within the story" and to express the "spirit" of his story sets Ament apart from most writers, especially moutain-genre authors.

Thanks for a chance to comment.

Sincerely,
Gary Gabelhouse, CEO
Fairfield Communications, Inc.

I feel driven to respond to the colorful commentary with regard Pat Ament's rendition of Royal Robbins. Particularly to those in Pennsylvania that appear to "frequent" these pages. I hope the Keeper of these reviews will find my remarks suitable enough to post. I am a climber who began as a 16 year old wannabe in 1970. My partner then, Kevin Givens and I were both raised in Modesto, California. Of course Modesto was Royal's headquarters. Kevin was one of Royal's first employees at Robbins Mountain Shop in Modesto when it had just opened. Kevin and I spent hundreds of days through the 70's seeking the prize we called 5.11. Although, I did not "know" Royal, I certainly had my share of encounters with him. Kevin and I were a small part of those great days in the 70's when all the doors that had been opened by Royal Robbins, Warren Harding, Layton Kor, Yvon Chouinard, Chuck Pratt, Tom Frost,and all, made it possible for us to realize what can be done. Fo! r that, all climbers in my generation are grateful I'm sure. Everyone of the individuals that we all tried to emulate, were in the Valley because of those who pioneered the sport in Yosemite in the late 50's through the 60's. Ask Lohn Long, Jim Bridwell, Ron Kauk, John Bachar, Dale Bard, Ray Jardine, John Lackey, etc. what drove them to be in the Valley in those days. I am certain that all would say someone else's name. Someone perhaps on the list of names I just mentioned. Our heroes.

Pat Ament, I knew who you were then. I know who you are now. I appreciate your attempts at describing your renditions of any climber that had inspired me to climb. You were one of them too. Right along with the names I have already mentioned. I too would find it disheartening to here the negative remarks coming from someone who "never knew who you were then". I thought every climber knew who you were. I got my first taste of your writing through John Gill:Master of Rock when it was f! irst published back in the 70's. Rather that focus on your ! writing talents, I found it thirst quenching to simply have someone describing the life and talents of these pioneers in this sport we love so dearly. I suggest that others do the same. Thank you dearly for your published words about these climbers and of the climbing that took place in the days when style and ethics mattered. I miss them. By the way Pat, you were an awesome climber then. I am sure you still are. I remember all of those frozen moments in books and magazines of you on some crux somewhere in Colorado or the Valley. Thanks for your words and love of climbing.

I am actually the author, and not a reader, but I must make a final comment... in the running discussion that has ocurred at this site. I notice still more from the Springhouse fellow. His entire mentality is summed up in his latest comment that Jim Perrin would say something he (Perrin) doesn't believe. Perrin is a man of integrity and says what he means. Perrin is also astute and knows what he is talking about. As for Mr. Springhouse having a little trouble with my writing in the book, that's fine. But why is he wasting time airing his thoughts, especially such general thoughts, in these review sections? Is he aspiring to be a reviewer? No one cares whether he likes or dislikes my work. And that is my point. It is so easy for someone who has no credibility and perhaps no writing ability himself to throw out some very general comment with nothing to support it. I am not afraid of criticism. But I like to see honesty and good, intelligent criticism. I like to see balanc! e and perspective. That is, no general comments. Only specifics and examples. Show me a line, for example, that is poorly written. Or show me a factual error. If there is some way the book fails, keep that in proper perspective with the other ways that the book succeeds. As for the criticism that I have played Royal too much as a hero, well I spend quite a bit of time in the book pointing out his imperfections and struggles with people. His greatness, as expressed in the book, simply mirrors the hundreds of contributors to the book and their opinions. I had to juggle an incredible amount of information from hundreds of people and could only hope to come away with a small vestige of my own voice. A whole lot of the climbing world sees Royal with the same respect that I do, and they--who truly knew him--respect what I have done, but I think I have kept such respect in a good balance with his human qualities and imperfections.--Pat Ament

(...) It is not hard to understand why someone who made it to the top would want to write about the trek and all that entailed. Pat Ament is one of many mountaineers to climb Everest and return from the summit to write about it. His book is about the thrills of climbing Everest and the general mentality of all successful mountaineers.
To get right down to it, I honestly didn't like the book and didn't get a whole lot out of reading it. In the book Climbing Everest the author Ament writes more about the feelings that his memories of the climb invoke as he is sitting down to write about his adventure and less about the actual climb and the physical toll it took on him. He says things like "The Everest climber comes back to the regular world, returns home, and then in his manner, built into him, is a bearing, a small shiver, something fixed, as though he never will cease to shake in the dark airspace of a tent" (...). This in my opinion makes the book a little hard to read when you can hardly understand what the man is really talking about. This also makes it a little difficult to comprehend what the author is trying to get across to his readers. Ament might be doing this and not even realize what he is doing. (...) Although Ament did not write the kind of book I was expecting to read, I think that the book was well written. Personally I told you that I really didn't like it, but it was a well written book. He tells us some of the feelings that you might experience when on the mountain or while you are climbing it. He also tells some interesting facts about how people of all skill levels can climb a mountain.
So in a sense he is saying that with the right preparation you can overcome Everest no matter what class mountaineer that you are.
He also speaks of some of the people he has climbed with over the years . An important fact that Ament put in the book was when Chomolungma, the name given the mountain by Tibetans, was renamed Everest after the surveyor-General of India, Sir George Everest, in 1865, it was about 56 years before actual climbers(or at least any of which we know) would go up onto the mountain and map what might be learned of themselves. And another very important statement that Ament quoted "The mountains give, the mountains take" (...). This statement is important to me in the fact that he is saying that you climb at your own risk, and you just hope that on the trip no one gets injured or looses his or her lives. I think this statement refers more to the fact that there is very little control on the mountain. It doesn't matter to the mountain who's climbing - the climber might get lucky and have great climbing weather or the climber could get killed by an avalanche. You can't predict what the climb will be like because it's all up to the mountain.
Ament's Climbing Everest was not what I expected. It had some good qualities - some history about the peak and it's references to Shakespeare as well as the encouragement he offered his readers who might be interested in climbing Everest - but overall, the book was not a very good one. I think Ament was writing more for himself than for his audience because he included to many feelings and not enough descriptions about his experiences as he strove to reach the top of Everest. If you were to judge the book by it's cover, like I did, and use just the title to choose the book, I think you would be disappointed by the story that came after the cover. Ament wanted to reflect on his memories of the climb and the emotions that he felt as he was remembering instead of looking back on the adventure he had as he ascended Mt. Everest. The general public is more interested in Ament's actions than in his feeling's and I think that he had catered more to that sentiment, the book would have been much more interesting to read.

Everest, that noble word derives its meaning not from the height it represents nor the atmosphere. It has the meaning derived from the great souls that have been a part of it and make it a part of theirselves. The journey through a thousand words into the heart of Everest can never be more enjoyable and dynamic and challenging and sometimes surprisingly and ironically funny than when accompanied with Pat Ament's book: Climbing Everest.
The challenges of everest are their in everyones life, however the Team spirit, vision and direction and guidance make any Everest in ones life a successful venture. Whether you are an armchair Philosopher or an avid mountaineer you would love the way the lines lead you to the heart and heights of the Himalayas and bring you back with new power and grace in a different level of awareness back to where you belong. Oh Everest, how I wish I am Mallory's companion or Robert Frost,s poem..may be I am, for I am lost totally in the laps of Himalayas and can never descend.

Rembrandt often did self-portraits, and a few of his critics called him vain. My book "Climbing Everest" is a type of self-portrait. It is a book about progression, how each of us moves upward through the various storms and camps of life. We each try to gain the next height, the next level of awareness or spiritual insight. The fact that I know my subject, climbing, very well is almost incidental to the real meanings of the book which are to be found somewhat between the lines. As with Everest, this book will require a little effort. You will have to be the measure of the task. I write these words in the spirit of encouragement. Give the book a chance, find a place to quietly and honestly and truly read and feel it, absorb its messages, and see if it doesn't speak of life itself. It will speak of the struggles required of us and the joys. Life, like Everest, is at once both beautiful and terrible, rewarding and painful. This is a book about climbing, yes, but it is more a book about the inner soul and aspiring to the high realms of appreciation, friendship, art, strength, love, and deeper meanings. Everest is simply one of an infinite number of places the soul and spirit seek and need to attain. -- Pat Ament