The Alps

This is the first comprehensive overview on Iron Age urbanism south and north of the Alps.

“An entertaining, turbocharged race among the high mountain passes of six alpine countries.” —Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review For centuries the Alps have been witness to the march of armies, the flow of pilgrims and Crusaders, the feats of mountaineers, and the dreams of engineers. In The Alps, Stephen O’Shea ("a graceful and passionate writer"—Washington Post) takes readers up and down these majestic mountains. Journeying through their 500-mile arc across France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, he explores the reality behind historic events and reveals how the Alps have profoundly influenced culture and society.

Though the Alps may appear to be a peaceful place, the famed mountains once provided the backdrop for a political, environmental, and cultural battle as Germany and Austria struggled to modernize. Tait Keller examines the mountains' threefold role in transforming the two countries, as people sought respite in the mountains, transformed and shaped them according to their needs, and over time began to view them as national symbols and icons of individualism. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Alps were regarded as a place of solace from industrial development and the stresses of urban life. Soon, however, mountaineers, or the so-called apostles of the Alps, began carving the crags to suit their whims, altering the natural landscape with trails and lodges, and seeking to modernize and nationalize the high frontier. Disagreements over the meaning of modernization opened the mountains to competing agendas and hostile ambitions. Keller examines the ways in which these opposing approaches corresponded to the political battles, social conflicts, culture wars, and environmental crusades that shaped modern Germany and Austria, placing the Alpine borderlands at the heart of the German question of nationhood.

The mountains are calling and we must run! All around the world, runners are ditching the pavement and heading out on trails for mountain air and big views. Run the Alps Switzerland features 30 must-do trail runs that will appeal to novices and experts alike. From Zinal to Dent de Morcles, from Grindelwald to Kandersteg, from the wilds of the Engadine to the secret valleys of Ticino, the authors researched hundreds of routes, in search of the very best trail running in the Swiss Alps. The photos, taken during these summer days in the Swiss Alps and into the fall, will amaze you. This guide provides practical advice and precise indications, such as the level of difficulty. Read the tips, download the tracks, tie your shoes and go, go, go! Switzerland had everything to become a trail running country. This excellent book will guide trailers from around the world on beautiful Alpine run as a preparation for the great trail races of the country.' Tiphaine Artur, Trail Verbier St-Bernard

These remarkable vintage map artworks, both hand drawn and painted, capture the beauty of the Alps more effectively than any camera or computer. As downhill skiing became popular in 20th-century Europe, resorts in the Austrian, German, French, and Swiss Alps commissioned paintings of their ski runs to turn into maps. The best of these paintings are now featured in this book showing the artists' ability to combine technical virtuosity, geographic information, and creative flair. Detailing scenes of the Alpine range from Slovenia to France, each of these images was created by hand from aerial photography, mostly shot by the artists on helicopter rides through the mountains. The paintings themselves cleverly combine multiple perspectives so that all trails, terrain, and mountain features are visible. In these exquisite reproductions, the paintings have been stripped of all references to the ski trails, allowing viewers to focus entirely on the beauty of the colors, composition, and detail. A joy to study and savor, these dramatic and vivid paintings recall a time when the human hand was the best means of translating the Alps' towering beauty to the general public.

The second edition of this classic guidebook by Kev Reynolds on walking and trekking in the Alps. This book is a definitive guide to the many thousands of possible routes, with a geographical span that ranges from the Maritime Alps of southern France to the Julians of Slovenia, from Italy's Gran Paradiso to the little-known Türnitzer Alps of eastern Austria, and from the ice-bound giants of the Bernese Oberland to the green rolling Kitzbüheler Alps and the bizarre towers of the Dolomites of South Tirol, showing the amazing diversity of this wonderful mountain chain. There are walks to suit every taste: gentle and undemanding, long and tough, and everything in between. Written by Britain's most respected authority on the Alps, this is a fully updated edition of this important book.

Although climate change is a global problem, there is growing recognition of the need to look at its regional manifestations and management. This book takes such an approach to the Alpine region. The result of the ongoing Swiss research program Climate and Environment in the Alpine Region [Clear], it incorporates the work of an independent network of approximately fifty researchers from a variety of disciplines.