It's Publication Day For High Summer!

 

I'm delighted and thrilled that my book on my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies is available again in a brand new edition packed with photos that have never been published before. I'm amazed too. I never thought this long out-of-print book about a walk thirty-six years ago would ever reappear. For that I have to thank publisher Andrew Terrill. 

Here are a few of the photos. 

Going through my old slides and working on the book meant reliving what was a grand adventure. I loved doing that. I hope readers will enjoy my story too. 

High Summer new edition - available November 1st!

I'm very pleased to announce that High Summer, the story of my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988, will be published in a new updated edition through Andrew Terrill's independent publishing imprint, the Enchanted Rock Press, on November 1st.

 

 Rereading the book for the first time in many, many years for this edition reminded me how different it was to undertake such a walk in the days before GPS, the Internet, smartphones, and satellite communicators. I really was out of touch for days and weeks at a time. Some of the stories in the book made me feel nervous! I've written a new introduction about what a different world it was then and put in some footnotes to clarify or explain things that might be puzzling but left the story as originally written.

On Kiwetinok Pass, Yoho National Park, July 2, 1988

High Summer was first published in 1989, in an edition long out of print. Back then all photography was on film and I took over 3000 colour slides during the walk. Just 21 appeared in that first edition. For the new edition there are 98 black and white photos in the paperback and 105 colour photos in the ebook, most of them never published before. One of my main tasks for the new book has been selecting and scanning slides, work that took time but which was very enjoyable. Even so it made me grateful for digital photography!

Working with Andrew Terrill has been a delight. His enthusiasm for my work is infectious and the magic he works on my old slides is astonishing. The new book is his design and I think it looks much better than the original one. Andrew has also redrawn the maps and made them far more attractive and informative. I never thought I would see the book in print again and I am very grateful to Andrew for republishing it and putting in so much work to make it look as good as possible.

 

High Summer will be available on Amazon from November 1^st, 2024 as a paperback and an ebook, and from other online book retailers shortly after.

Ebook pre-orders can now be made on Amazon.

For UK readers HERE

US readers HERE

Canadian readers HERE

High Summer Update: New Edition Almost Ready!

The Rockwall, Kootenay National Park, July 

The new edition of High Summer, the story of my walk along the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988, is almost ready for publication. Andrew Terrill of Enchanted Rock Press has just sent me the typeset proofs of the print edition to check, which is exciting! 

As I mentioned in previous posts the new edition will have far more photographs than the first one. Indeed, my main work has been selecting and scanning slides to send to Andrew for him to process for publication. I've also written a new introduction looking back at the walk. The original text hasn't been altered though, I've just added a few footnotes. 

In the snow near the finish, October 

Now to check the proofs!

High Summer Update

Mount Sir Alexander, a great view on a tough day of cross-country travel. September 3.

As it's over a month since I mentioned the new edition of my book High Summer about my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies in 1988 I thought I'd give a brief update and show a few of the pictures I've scanned so far. 

Unnamed lake near the Graham River. October 5.

The book should be out in the not too distant future once I've sent more images to Andrew Terrill, who is publishing the book through his imprint, Enchanted Rock Press. Andrew then works some magic on the images to prepare them for publication, which will be in colour in the e-book and black and white in the print edition (due to the cost of colour printing). Andrew has also recently posted an update on his blog with some of the pictures he has prepared. 

Brew stop on a cold sunny day in the forest in the Hook Creek valley. September 18.

There will be far more photos in the new edition than the twenty in the original one, which will, I hope, show much more about what the walk was like and the variety of landscape, weather, and terrain involved.

Trail in the rain near Maligne Pass. August 1.

Now back to scanning more slides!

Halfway River. October 6

Now back to scanning more slides!

High Summer: Backpacking The Canadian Rockies republishing update

A month ago I posted about plan for a new edition of High Summer, my book about walking the length of the Canadian Rockies back in 1988 that has long been out of print. Andrew Terrill is republishing the book under his imprint Enchanted Rock Press and today I sent him the text with some added footnotes and a new introduction. There's no publication date yet but we're getting closer.

I have also been sending Andrew batches of images scanned from the slides I took during the walk for consideration for the book, which will have far more pictures than the original edition. I've posted a few of those images here, though I can't say say yet whether these will actually appear in the book.

I'm scanning the slides with my Sony a6700 digital camera and Sony 30mm macro lens on an old lightbox. The originals were taken with two Pentax SLR cameras and 24mm, 28-70mm, and 70-210mm Tokina lenses on Fujichrome 50 and 100 ISO colour transparency film and for one section where my supply box failed to arrive Ektachrome 100 and 200 ISO transparency film. 

I took over 3000 transparencies so selecting ones to scan is taking time. I love doing it though. I haven't seen most of these photos for over 30 years.

Memorable Mountains 4: Mount Assiniboine

The fourth in a series of memorable mountains I'm thinking about is one I've never climbed but have sat and stared at for hours. Mount Assiniboine is a dramatic 3618 metre mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The photo above was taken on a ski tour in 1987. I found the rather battered negative of this picture a few days ago while sorting through some old photos. I coudn't find the print so I photographed the negative on my old lightbox and processed it in Lightroom.

Mount Assiniboine appears in two of my long-out of print books. I described the ski tour mentioned above in Wilderness Skiing and Winter Camping and described Assiniboine as a "magnificent soaring spire ... a classic mountain, a mountain of dreams, the perfect mountain of childhood memories".










A year after the ski tour I walked the length of the Canadian Rockies, a trip that took me past Mount Assiniboine. I wrote about this trip in High Summer: Backpacking the Canadian Rockies. The picture above is from the book. I camped with a superb view of the mountain and spent the evening watching the light change on its slopes. Unforgettable.

On this day thirty years ago I began my walk the length of the Canadian Rockies

At the Canada/USA border in Waterton Lakes National Park

June 23rd 1988 I set out on one of my most ambitious walks, to hike the length of the Canadian Rockies, which had not been done before. I was inspired to do the walk by Ben Gadd's superb Handbook of the Canadian Rockies, which I'd bought the year before when I was in the Rockies for a ski tour. That trip made me want to go back to these spectacular mountains. Ben's book gave me a goal. In it he wrote that a great challenge would be 'to hike the whole length of the Canadian Rockies, a distance of 1450km as the crow flies. It seems possible to do the whole hike in a summer'. As soon as I read those words I knew I wanted to do that walk. So I did. It took a bit more than a summer though. I ran well into the autumn, finishing in late October after 97 days and 2414km. I carried Ben's book the whole way and stayed with him in Jasper. He came and met me at the finish too. Thanks for that Ben and for the inspiration.

On the Rockwall Trail, Kootenay National Park

The walk split roughly into two. In the southern half I was mostly in national parks, which meant good trails but also permits and restricted camping (this section is now covered by the Great Divide Trail). In the northern half there were few trails and no parks, making the walk a much wilder and challenging proposition. I loved it! I met no other walkers at all once I left the parks. No-one out in the wilds at all in fact, just hunters in camps.

Looking over Keily Creek to the Great Snow Mountain Range in the Northern Canadian Rockies

Photographic note: the images are scans from Fujichrome transparencies. I took an amazing amount of camera gear on this hike - the most on any long walk I think. Two SLR cameras, 24mm, 28-70mm, and 70-210mm lenses, 2x Tele Converter, tripod. The total weight was 4.5kg. I took 3000 transparencies.

Book note:  This walk was the subject of my second book, which came out in 1989. It's been out of print for many years but should be republished as an e-book sometime in the next year along with Walking the Yukon, which is about a walk I did the length of the Yukon Territory two years after the Canadian Rockies walk.