Found some good mountain books over the last several months!
Colorado's Highest: The History of Naming the 14,000-Foot Peaks By Jeri L. Norgren. This has some great info on 14er naming, first ascents, and sketches/paintings.
Fourteen Thousand Feet by John L. Jerome Hart (both 1925 and 1931 editions). Lots of good historical 14er info here.
Summits to Reach: An Annotated Edition of Franklin Rhoda's Report on the Topography of the San Juan Country By Mike Foster. Franklin Rhoda, assistant topographer, recounts his summer of 1874 exploring and surveying the San Juan mountains with his half brother Allen David Wilson (Chief topographer) and Frederic Endlich (geologist). They made some first recorded 14er ascents, and climbed many other mountains as well. The 14ers this group climbed in 1874 were Uncompahgre, Sunshine (station 12), Handies, Sneffels, and Mt Wilson. Unlike other reports, parts of this one are actually very interesting to read and read like a novel (while others are a bit drier and record geographic and geologic details of certain areas). I believe at least part of, if not his whole report can be found in Hayden’s annual survey report for the exploration of 1874, see page 415:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ite ... 8/mode/1up
Roof of the Rockies : A History of Mountaineering in Colorado by William M. Bueler is an interesting book of Colorado mountaineering and first ascents. For those looking into early and first recorded ascents, this is another great source. It also includes first ascents of more technical routes on certain peaks, and ends with modern peakbagging and records. Spencer Swanger, Bob Martin, and Mike Garratt get prominent mentions. I read the third edition, which ends just before John Kirk’s peakbagging career began. Otherwise he would most certainly be including as one of Colorado’s most prolific peakbaggers.
Notes on mountaineering in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, 1908-1910 by Percy Hagerman. Percy Hagerman and Harold Clark are two of the early prominent mountaineers in the Elk range, accumulating some significant first recorded ascents in that area. Hagerman recounts some of his trips in this short CMC pamphlet.
For those in the Colorado Springs area…
Some good Pikes Peak resource books are Pikes Peak: Legends of America's Mountain by James McChristal (history and Zebulon Pike attempt), Among the Eternal Snows by Phil Carson (dives into great detail on Edwin James’ first recorded ascents and attempts to retrace the route himself), and The Granite Attraction: Stories of the Pikes Peak Highway and Summit by Eric Swab (history of development on Pikes Peak and associated interesting stories).
Eric Swab also wrote an interesting book on the history of the Manitou Incline Railway (From Utility to Attraction: A History of Mt. Manitou Park & Incline Railway), as well as a biography on Fred Barr (Fred Barr – Pikes Peak Entrepreneur).
Mapping the Four Corners: Narrating the Hayden Survey of 1875 by Robert McPherson and Susan Neel. Only a little peakbagging mentioned, but one worth reading for those interested in the Hayden survey, some of the of the earliest modern documentation on the Mesa Verde ruins, and a skirmish with some natives in eastern Utah from which a Hayden party barely escaped with their lives.
Some old mapping books I’ve recently looked at are Colorado Mapology by Erl Ellis, Colorado: Mapping the Centennial State through History by Stephen Grace and Vincent Virga, and Mapping the West: America's Westward Movement 1524-1890 by Paul Cohen.
