Lynn Martel

Lynn Martel April 24, 2024 Share on X (Twitter) Share on Facebook Share on Email Share on SMS Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges is a 265-page book by Bernadette McDonald published by Mountaineers Books in 2024. There are stories that need to be told. And that is why writers write. From the first paragraphs of Alpine Rising, the reader senses their author, Bernadette McDonald, understood these stories were long overdue.

Slipping my pack onto my back, I walked along the gravel trail. As it is most summer days, the narrow mountain path was busy with tourists clutching smartphones on selfie sticks and lugging the occasional full-frame camera and hefty tripod. Unbeknownst to most of them, they were following a decades-old ritual, visiting the viewpoint overlooking one of the most photographed places in the Canadian Rockies: the radiantly turquoise Peyto Lake.

Their original plan was to make a film about para-alpinism. It would be an IMAX production, and all that goes with it. Big, crisp visuals and a powerful story from high alpine places, featuring a team of climbers who combine their passion for ascending high peaks with their love for flying back down to the valley floor using paragliders.