Backcountry WA guidebook

This would be a good opportunity for all of us to say thank you, Rainer. Your book got me going many years ago and I'm grateful.

Thanks Rainer!!  I love the GB and flip through it almost daily for inspiration.

As with many people I have spent many hours studying your book.
Thank you for your effort it is greatly appreciated.

Megadittoes, Rainer.  Thanks for the book, ideas, and inspiration! And the push to go beyond the book...

I spend many hours reading and rereading Rainer's book.  Partly to get psyched and partly to glean any tidbit I may have missed for ideas.  My first copy was from years before I moved out here, a photocopy made by a friend, then in school in Oregon.  It made me very interested in moving out when I did.  As soon as I saw the last edition for sale I bought it without reservation.  Thanks!

I think the low sales just reflect the size of the audience.  Even in this day of so-called explosive growth in "backcountry skiing" based on sales, really most of that probably is reflected in side country trips or trips limited to a very few areas that are highly repeated. For many of the newly converted, this is backcountry skiing with "security". Mostly accountable by just a few chapters of your book.

If I am interested in exploring new areas, I almost always consult your book and one of Becky's just to get an idea of the nature of the terrain, access, etc. if it is not outright described in your book as a tour.  I usually follow up using my old Topo! software and then NASA WorldWind to view the terrain at the highest resolution in photo to see if any routes cliff out or something not visible on a topographic map.  TAY site is also a valuable resource.  Maybe the future of guidebooks lies in some format that provides more, but I appreciate your book for what I think it is meant to be and that is an introduction to one of the best and most accessible backcountry areas in the world.  Likely there are those on this site that appreciate that not every possible route in the Cascades is described in print.

It is too bad that enough volumes of your book were not printed to keep a couple copies of it on shelves at each backcountry outlet in the local area as well as some other more comprehensive stores on the east coast.  Those skiers out there dream long and hard about coming out here for a visit and surely would have your book on their nightstands.  I say this because I was one of them.  Also, considering that REI can devote many feet of shelf space to 25 different versions of "100 greatest ...".  I also am sorry that REI does such a poor job of obtaining guide books from other areas of the world.  They have lots of standard issue guidebooks for general travels, but for a coop that seems to have an origin in a service to a community of outdoor enthusiasts, especially from an area that historically has provided some of the world's elite climbers, skiers, etc. you would think that as a loss leader they would have someone seek out at least a few volumes of some of the more interesting guide books from local areas from other parts of the world.  As an example, I have a great guidebook from Alaska, "Skiing Alaska's back 40", that I love even though it is very simple and very local.  I would assume that the Mountaineers has these types of books in their library and seeks to get them?

Alan

In an effort to follow an example of how to donate in an auction setting, if Rainer was to find his book and was going to "donate" it to someone, could he donate it to NWAC and we could pay to purchase it in an auction with all proceeds going to NWAC or even TAY? Not to take the thunder of Rainer's book fairy tactics away. Just thought of it as a good way to give it back for max benefit. I'll buy one!

Also, if there's no guide book, how are all the new people in the sport finding my secret stashes!!! need to be more quiet on describing destinations in the mountains. Or go further back.