Lou’s News #25 – Book Reviews, and Reviews (October 2024)
Hi All,
First, a word regarding other media on the landscape, then see below for recent podcast appearances etcetera.
Oh, and lest I forget: Avalanche Dreams reviews — if you’ve not had a chance, check out the much appreciated takes on our ‘Zon pages. Please leave at least a star review if at all possible, your authentic rating and/or text really helps.
Moving along … it might seem odd that I’m touting two climbing publications, with the North American snow season just around the mountain. But hey, as ski mountaineers, are we not ready to embrace our brethren of the vertical realms? Indeed, dangling from ropes lends itself to stories — there’s never a lack.
Summit Journal
First up: Clocking in at issue #321, Summit Journal could now be called “venerable” — if it wasn’t so current. Edited by Michael Levy (chops from Climbing magazine to the New York Times), the Journal is a twice yearly compendium of crafted literature and delicious imagery. In all, a stunning declaration of why ink&paper is far from nuked in the face of the protonic onslaught. Chockablock with dozens of written pieces (from poems to long-form to imagery), anyone from the armchair mountaineer to the young Turk will find the Journal to be plenty compelling. In this issue #321, I was especially partial to The Accidental Mountaineers, a droll “chuckle piece” with a dose of family, featuring a mountain that was too “short.”
Also on my reading table, I just turned the last page of Survival Is Not Assured, the biography of legendary climber Jim Donini. In case you don’t know of Jim, he’s in his eighth decade with more than fifty years of pioneer climbing behind him. What’s it take for a career such as that? Sacrifices, tragedies, triumphs, to name a few factors. In that vein author Geoff Powter doesn’t hold back on what it means to explore the mountain world at Donini’s level. And I’m not talking about how good a climber the man was, but rather the entire picture of such a life: rockfall, soulfall, and all. No hagiography here, far from it. Instead, you get the real — and often raw — deal.
And remember to drop an Avalanche Dreams review if you haven’t done so.
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Below, please find available media from my recent PR run, AKA the “second book launch.”
The Powell Movement (podcast): Episode 406: Lou Dawson, interviewed by Mike Powell regarding the Avalanche Dreams memoir.
From the host: “On the podcast, we talk about growing up in Texas, moving to Aspen, the counterculture movement, the draft, the mountains, his must-read book, Avalanche Dreams, and much more.”
https://www.thepowellmovement.com/listen/2024/10/27/episode-…
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My keynote interview with Chris Davenport was a recent highlight, at our Backcountry Symposium here in Colorado. Listen up! (Image below, with Chris at the event).
Lou Dawson and Chris Davenport interview
https://www.aspenpublicradio.org/ideas-speakers-lectures/202…
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Telemark-Voices.com (blog): Lou Dawson Elevates Skiing (Again). More a biographical overview than a book focus. Well done by Jack O’Brien.
https://www.telemark-voices.com/post/lou-dawson-elevates-ski…
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The-High-Route.com (2024) podcast: “Dawson, pioneering American ski mountaineer, climber, and writer, dissects hard-earned wisdom of the mountain in Avalanche Dreams: A Memoir of Skiing, Climbing, and Life.”
https://the-high-route.com/thr-podcast-episode-17-avalanche-…
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Carol Thompson, Carol (2024) Book Review: “Avalanche Dreams … is an exhilarating memoir that takes readers on a thrilling, heart-pounding journey … but it’s also a reflective and moving read for anyone who has ever wrestled with their identity or sought meaning in their life’s most challenging moments.” Readers Favorite Book Reviews (website & newsletter)
https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/avalanche-dreams
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Irreligion: Ski Bums and Dirt Bags. (David Hale’s opinion column, book review): “[Dawson’s] recent book, Avalanche Dreams, memorializes not just the lifestyle … but also the many truly amazing athletes, inventors, visionaries, writers, and adventurers whom he climbed and skied with. The book almost has a Forrest Gump feel to it due to his friendships with so many of the legends of the time — some quirky, some eccentric, and some just plain crazy but none who epitomized the lifestyle more than Lou … ”
https://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/irreligion-ski-bums-and-dirtbags
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Reviews: memoirs from Lou Dawson… by Seth Masia, Skiing History (magazine & website). “A soulful coming-of-age memoir…”
www.skiinghistory.org/article/reviews-memoirs-lou-dawson-pet…
