Kemp's Reviews > The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier

I liked Bartcott’s writing. The parenthetic side comments remind me of my inside voice. His description of the Rainier summit climb with RMI brought back memories of my accent. I still remember the route and the views that Bartcott describes.

The book gives a nice history of Mount Rainer and the efforts to change the name to Tahoma. Knowing pieces and having some familiarity helps appreciate the back stories.

Bartcott also explores the motivation of the world’s great climbers with stories of local climbers like Jim Wickwire, Lou Whittaker, and Scott Fischer. We read summaries of accidents on Everest, K2, and elsewhere.

This is neither a focused book on any particular mountain climb like Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, accidents or tragedies (though several on Mount Rainer are covered), nor a history of the formation of Mount Rainier National Park. What it is is an amalgamation of these topics with the personal experiences of Bartcott. I liked it but it might not be for anyone less familiar with the mountain. A strong 3.5 but not enough for me to put it in the fourth category.