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Reviews > Books > General > Mountain Trivia Challenge > Owner Review by Pat ChristianOutdoor book review:
Reviewer: Backpacking/outdoor experience: MOUNTAIN TRIVIA CHALLENGE I always wondered if I might go to hell, where so many people over the years told me to go. Well thanks to an outdoor trivia book compact enough to fit easily in a backpack or tent pocket, I now know where I can walk from Heaven to Hell by hiking only 10 miles. I like this book. Armed with information from author
Ralph Storer’s “Mountain Trivia Challenge”, a book about the finer points of the
outdoor life, a camper can be Mr. Know-it-all, the star of any multi-person
tent, or they can entertain fellow hikers along the trail. But it is also a good armchair read or equally good reading when you are the passenger in a vehicle on the long drive with friends to that favorite trailhead. Digressing into hyperbolism, I will roll my eyes and say, this book could even save your life as you read to the weary driver returning from that weekend hike in order to keep him or her awake instead of falling asleep at the wheel. Of course dying in your sleep isn’t so bad as other deaths are. In fact I think when I die I want to do so peacefully like a friend of mine did, in his sleep, not clawing and screaming, like the passengers in his car did (Yes, this is a joke.) I like the trivia book’s format that asks outdoor-related questions that are divided into 75 subject categories such as state high points, American trails, camping, and mountain weather. Answers are listed at the end of each category. The answers are printed upside-down, and I find this just a little annoying. On minutiae about climbing gear, one trivia question asks, “Why are Vibram soles so called?” Well, turn the book upside-down and the answer is, “They were invented by Vitale Bramani in Italy in 1935.” Hey, before reading “Mountain Trivia Challenge,” I didn’t know that. While this information hasn’t dramatically changed my life or made me rich it has according to some friends made me more interesting, but according to others made me a royal pain in the arse (The British spelling seems less offensive, to this Yank). While there are many trivial questions like the one about Vibram, that seem simply entertaining, I find that some questions in the book look as if they are more essential and actually can educate a hiker or camper and improve their outdoor experience. Under the question on camping, the book asks, “On a cold night, which is the warmer place to camp and why: in a depression or on a nearby hillside?” It answers, “On a nearby hillside, because cold night air flows downhill into the depression.” And some of the questions are downright esoteric, like: “How did ‘La Montagne’ (The Mouintain) take part in the 1789 French Revoluition?” Answer: “ La Montagne was the name of the extreme democratic party, whose leaders included Danton and Robespierre.” The book even has categories on Anagrams, so who can name the American Mountain hidden in this anagram: DRAGON TENT? (Clue: two-word Wyoming landmark). The question-and-answers format of the book and a little outdoor reading of it has taught me: —that a dark-colored tent is warmer than a light-colored tent on a winter night because dark colors radiate heat more readily at night. —That a tent fly sheet increases the warmth of a tent by trapping insulating dead air. —That contour lines were invented on Schiehallion (3,553 ft/1,083 m) in the Scottish Highlands when the idea came to Charles Hutton during a survey of the mountain by that British Astronomer Royal in 1774. —That Voltaire explained that seashells found on mountain tops must have been carried there by pilgrims. —That the international distress signal, first proposed by the Alpine Club in 1894, and now universally adopted is six blasts on a whistle (or flashes of a torch). —That it will take 10-20 years for a plastic bag dropped in the wilderness to decompose. So back to where I started this review: Where can a hiker walk from Heaven to Hell in only 10 miles? So sorry. I’m not going to reveal all the many answers to the questions in this interesting book. If you want to know, buy, borrow or check the book out of any library that shelves it. Here is some more questions from the book I will not answer: —“Relaxing between space missions, Captain Kirk goes solo rock climbing on Earth in “Star Trek V.” On which peak is he climbing when he falls and has to be rescued by Mr. Spock in anti-gravity boots?” —“Where did the rubber come from in the original “sticky” rock-climbing boots made by the Spanish manufacturer Boreal?” —“Which mountain appears in the title of and provides the backdrop to a 1938 Ernest Hemingway short story that was made into a 1952 film starring Gregory Peck?” —“In ‘The Dharma Bums,’ Jack Kerouac describes a beatnik ascent of a mountain in Yosemite National Park, California. Which Mountain?” —“Where in Spanish territory can you obtain hot chocolate laced with cognac at 11,664 ft. (3,555 m) on a volcano?” —Which animal causes more injuries than any other to the world’s hikers?” (hint: man’s best friend). —What creatures, previously thought legendary, were discovered on the Muir Glacier in Alaska in 1887?” Fittingly, the last question in the book is, “Would you recommend this book to your friends?” Yes, I would. Happy trails to all you fellow tent readers out there in the dark, dark woods. May readers find something in my tests & reviews that may be useful; now get outside and leave no trace. --pat christian-- Read more reviews of The Mountaineers Books gear Read more gear reviews by Pat Christian Reviews > Books > General > Mountain Trivia Challenge > Owner Review by Pat Christian | |||
