Overview

"2022 Banff Mountain Book Competition Special Jury Mention ""A book every thoughtful adventurer and seeker of dreams should read."" -- Outside Author is a renowned writer in international climbing community Fascinating story of hoax that inspired a quest for a North American Shangri-La Vivid recounting of fabled mountains from across the world Using an infamous deception about a fake mountain range in British Columbia as her jumping-off point, Katie Ives, the well-known editor of Alpinist, explores the lure of blank spaces on the map and the value of the imagination. In Imaginary Peaks she details the cartographical mystery of the Riesenstein Hoax within the larger context of climbing history and the seemingly endless quest for newly discovered peaks and claims of first ascents. Imaginary Peaks is an evocative, thought-provoking tale, immersed in the literature of exploration, study of maps, and basic human desire."

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9781680515411

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Reviews

Imaginary Peaks is a wide-ranging exploration of the ways mountains inspire us to dream.--Heather Dawe Little Peak Before the obsessions, before the certainties, before the knowledge, we were led by imaginings and dreams. Lying on the shag rug of the rumpus room with, as Katie Ives puts it in Imaginary Peaks, scraps of old images that drifted from illuminated manuscripts and sepia-toned maps, tales that slipped from leather-bound volumes and ink-blurred magazine pages..., dreaming of yarding our way up pinnacles, yes, that was painless. Beautiful, too. The sunlight: how it bent. The solidity. The lack of doubt. This is what Ives has rekindled in Imaginary Peaks.--Jerry Auld American Alpine Journal A masterful work of non-fiction that reads like a novel.... Imaginary Peaks is meticulously researched and beautifully executed.--Jayme Moye Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine Most of all, I appreciate how Ives isolated the notion of what we seek when we go into nature looking for adventure through examining Manning's life. It's intensely personal and sometimes it's fundentally about the imagined story and narrative we tell ourselves.... If you are looking for magic places, whether it's your real summit, a mountain pass, Middle Earth, Narnia, or the transformative power of a walk in the woods without a map, I highly recommend you read Katie Ives' Imaginary Peaks.--Andrew Szalay The Suburban Mountaineer Her [Ives'] engaging book Imaginary Peaks explores that idea by using a prank directed at the climbing community to make a larger point about our relationship with mountains: they have always been sources of mystery, with secrets waiting to be discovered, and that's the way we like it.--Ken DuBois Mazama Bulletin Imaginary Peaks is a rich and diverse work that quickly draws the reader into a labyrinth of ideas about myth and reality in mountaineering, and in exploration and mapping in general.--Mike Nash Cloudburst In all, the book is a fact-filled exploration of human reverie and desire. But there's no whimsy here; Ives' sense of wonder towards both the physical and metaphysical mountains is serious and studious. A fascinating read for dreamers and fans of mountain literature, history, cartography, mythology and adventure.-- UKClimbing Throughout [Ives] runs a biography of [Harvey] Manning, an influential climber beyond the resilience of his jokes, and she uses his prank as a jumping-off point for a rumination on dreams, ruses and the appeal of the unknown and the imaginary.--Tom Hallberg Backcountry Magazine The author probes what mountains mean in the human imagination. Roaming widely through the literary topography of exploration, Ives...takes the armchair climber far indeed.-- Harvard Magazine A thoughtful and transporting treat for adventurers and dreamers.--Katie O'Reilly Sierra With these carefully researched and richly told stories, Ives reminds us of the human capacity for boundless wonder. Today, in our era of global satellite imaging, she urges us not to lose our power of imagining.--Barbara Lloyd McMichael Coast Weekend Well-researched and equally well-written, 'Imaginary Peaks' is a compelling read, both for experienced mountaineers and for those that have yet to attempt their first climb.-- The Harvard Crimson A fascinating look at the human desire to discover new places, and how that desire fuels imagination and lore--a must read for anyone who has ever been called to explore.--Charlie Lieu Washington Trails magazine [Ives] traces how the issues at the center of outdoor recreation today--Indigenous acknowledgment, climate change effects, wilderness overcrowding--have roots that reach far into our history. And among the philosophical inquiry into the concept of imaginary mountains, Ives sketches a portrait of a man [Harvey Manning] who contributed so much to the Northwest experience of exploration but still struggled with our human impact on the places he loved.--Allison Williams Seattle Met Imaginary Peaks delivers evocative scenery with a mystical feel, combined with suspenseful adventure. The words reflect the author's mastery of her craft: in a book about mountains, no two ways are repeated to describe them.--Cassidy Randall Forbes In an outdoors scene seemingly saturated with high-tech athleticism like pursuits of fastest known time (FKT) records, Ives' embrace of the mystical and mythopoetic nature of mountains reads like an antidote to FKT culture.... Imaginary Peaks conjures the same dreamlike head space of literary moments like Hans Castorp wandering in a whiteout in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, or Col. Allen Forrester crossing a mountain pass in Eowyn Ivey's To the Bright Edge of the World. --Gregory Scruggs The Seattle Times It's thrilling to accompany Ives on this odyssey through real and imaginary mountain lore, but the first-person narration and interludes of levity make her discourse warm, accessible and sometimes funny. The book is full of touching human detail from the personal lives of climbers and dreamers.--Dave Smart Gripped Ives has done an amazing 'tour de force' in exploring the myths of real and unreal mountains through history, describing the antics of hoaxers and fakers, reflecting on contemporary meanings of mountains and relating her own relationships with mountains around the world and the multitude of mountain people she has come to know as editor of Alpinist.--David Fluharty The Wild Cascades A book every thoughtful adventurer and seeker of dreams should read.-- Outside A perfect blend of history and adventure, and a lovely meditation on why humans are called to explore. Fans of mountaineering and natural history are sure to enjoy Ives's writing, as will anyone who has ever wistfully wished for a mountainous journey of their own.-- Shelf Awareness With its in-depth research, stories and legends, personal interviews, and Ives's own intimate knowledge of the psychology of climbers, Imaginary Peaks is an engaging look into what compels people to risk their lives to be the first to conquer a demanding ascent.-- Foreword Reviews Ives roots Imaginary Peaks in the very grounded lives of the three pranksters who knew that all journeys are inner ones and that what matters most about the mountains isn't getting on top, but who we are when we're in them.-- Adventure Journal Ives's writing is engaging throughout, bringing readers into the world of climbing while also telling the story of why this climbing fantasy was easily seen as a reality.... For readers of exploration or literary adventure and those seeking the lost art of getting lost.-- Library Journal I loved this book. Smart, readable, and impeccably researched, Imaginary Peaks challenges the reader to take a more expansive and inclusive approach to the historical debacles and self-congratulatory hyperbole that so often characterizes mountaineering.--Geof Childs, author of Stone Palaces Imaginary Peaks spirals together the known history of mountaineering, the cartographical interpretations of both known and mystical ranges, and writings factual, fictional, and fraudulent by climbers to create an amazing first book.--Barry Blanchard, author of The Calling Mountaineering literature's best-read scholar unpacks the human history behind one of the mountain world's best kept secrets, and shows us in the process how hoax can also tell a truth, fabrication bear witness to the unscalable reaches of the human imagination.--Stephen Slemon, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta A cat-footed exploration of the vaporous fantasies, deceptions, and obsessions of the climbing world, this book is a noble successor to Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind, but also, in a way, to Calvino's Invisible Cities. It is, in every sense of the word, dreamy.--Robert Moor, best-selling author of On Trails: An Exploration Imaginary Peaks, besides its excellent storytelling and vivid alpine descriptions, is a celebration of the human imagination and our eternal quest to reach the boundary between the known and the unknown.--Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams It has been a long while since I have felt this transported and, by the time I'd finished, elevated, by a book. A work of pure magic, Imaginary Peaks is mountain literature at its most relevant, connecting the vertical world to the larger mainstream.... Ives shapes a singular, bewitching meditation on the ways we know the unknown, or what she terms the 'elsewhere, ' the places that are no place. Here is a map into the heart of ascent.--Jeff Long, author of The Wall

A cat-footed exploration of the vaporous fantasies, deceptions, and obsessions of the climbing world, this book is a noble successor to Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind, but also, in a way, to Calvino's Invisible Cities. It is, in every sense of the word, dreamy.--Robert Moor, best-selling author of On Trails: An Exploration Imaginary Peaks, besides its excellent storytelling and vivid alpine descriptions, is a celebration of the human imagination and our eternal quest to reach the boundary between the known and the unknown.--Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams It has been a long while since I have felt this transported and, by the time I'd finished, elevated, by a book. A work of pure magic, Imaginary Peaks is mountain literature at its most relevant, connecting the vertical world to the larger mainstream.... Ives shapes a singular, bewitching meditation on the ways we know the unknown, or what she terms the 'elsewhere, ' the places that are no place. Here is a map into the heart of ascent.--Jeff Long, author of The Wall

A book every thoughtful adventurer and seeker of dreams should read.-- Outside A perfect blend of history and adventure, and a lovely meditation on why humans are called to explore. Fans of mountaineering and natural history are sure to enjoy Ives's writing, as will anyone who has ever wistfully wished for a mountainous journey of their own.-- Shelf Awareness With its in-depth research, stories and legends, personal interviews, and Ives's own intimate knowledge of the psychology of climbers, Imaginary Peaks is an engaging look into what compels people to risk their lives to be the first to conquer a demanding ascent.-- Foreword Reviews Ives roots Imaginary Peaks in the very grounded lives of the three pranksters who knew that all journeys are inner ones and that what matters most about the mountains isn't getting on top, but who we are when we're in them.-- Adventure Journal Ives's writing is engaging throughout, bringing readers into the world of climbing while also telling the story of why this climbing fantasy was easily seen as a reality.... For readers of exploration or literary adventure and those seeking the lost art of getting lost.-- Library Journal I loved this book. Smart, readable, and impeccably researched, Imaginary Peaks challenges the reader to take a more expansive and inclusive approach to the historical debacles and self-congratulatory hyperbole that so often characterizes mountaineering.--Geof Childs, author of Stone Palaces Imaginary Peaks spirals together the known history of mountaineering, the cartographical interpretations of both known and mystical ranges, and writings factual, fictional, and fraudulent by climbers to create an amazing first book.--Barry Blanchard, author of The Calling Mountaineering literature's best-read scholar unpacks the human history behind one of the mountain world's best kept secrets, and shows us in the process how hoax can also tell a truth, fabrication bear witness to the unscalable reaches of the human imagination.--Stephen Slemon, Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta A cat-footed exploration of the vaporous fantasies, deceptions, and obsessions of the climbing world, this book is a noble successor to Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind, but also, in a way, to Calvino's Invisible Cities. It is, in every sense of the word, dreamy.--Robert Moor, best-selling author of On Trails: An Exploration Imaginary Peaks, besides its excellent storytelling and vivid alpine descriptions, is a celebration of the human imagination and our eternal quest to reach the boundary between the known and the unknown.--Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams It has been a long while since I have felt this transported and, by the time I'd finished, elevated, by a book. A work of pure magic, Imaginary Peaks is mountain literature at its most relevant, connecting the vertical world to the larger mainstream.... Ives shapes a singular, bewitching meditation on the ways we know the unknown, or what she terms the 'elsewhere, ' the places that are no place. Here is a map into the heart of ascent.--Jeff Long, author of The Wall

Author Information

Katie Ives's writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Outside, The Rumpus, and Adventure Journal, as well as the anthologies Rock, Paper, Fire: The Best of Mountain and Wilderness Writing and Waymaking: An Anthology of Women's Adventure Writing, Poetry and Art. In 2016 she received the H. Adams Carter Literary Award from the American Alpine Club. She has participated in the Banff Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program and has served as a judge for the Boardman-Tasker Award, and a jury member, panelist, and panel moderator at the Banff Mountain Book Festival. Ives is editor in chief at Alpinist magazine and lives in Cambridge, Vermont. This is her first book.

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