BOOK REVIEWS

The following two reviews were prepared three months ago, in time for the last Newsletter. Regrettably, the editor chose not to include them. However, since their author is also acting editor this month, here they are, nine months after Walt Wheelock first gave the books to me. I apologize for the delay. Palm Canyons of Baja California by Randall Henderson, La Siesta Press, 72 pp., $1.95 Basic Rockclimbing by Royal Robbins, La Siesta Press, 70 pp., $1.95 About six months ago, Walt Wheelock gave me two of his newest books to review for the Newsletter. I composed two masterpieces. After their publication, I confidently expected to be asked to join the staff of the New York Times. As was my habit, I threw away all my rough drafts and put the final copies into an envelope which I dropped into the friendly blue Postal Service box on the corner. They have not been seen since. And so, I am trying to recall the essence of those lost reviews. But it's all for the best. I didn't really want to go to New York anyway. The first of these books, Palm Canyons of Baja California, is a collection of 8 articles written by Randall Henderson for Desert Magazine. Walt Wheelock has added a few photographs and a brief biography of Henderson, who certainly had one of the severest and best documented cases of desert love on record. In 1937 he founded Desert Magazine to be a voice for those who see the desert as a friend rather than as an enemy. He had an active interest in desert exploration, including a special fascination for the native palms of California. The articles reprinted in this book describe a series of trips taken between 1945 and 1955 to the canyons on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Juarez. Henderson is a very capable writer. There passages of great beauty which bring to mind in shape detail the tall, graceful, green palms, the red rock of the canyon walls and the brilliant blue of the Baja skies. It made me eager to return to that fascinating country to explore and enjoy it. And yet, just being able to visit vicariously is a satisfying experience. As Henderson wrote in one of the articles: "The beauty will be there - even though human eyes seldom look upon it, and half the fun of living is in dreaming of the places we would like to go - and sensing the fact that Nature is preserving the charm of these hidden beauty spots for the day when perhaps we may have the opportunity to see and enjoy them." However, in spite of the many lovely passages, this book does not really have much to say about the Palm Canyons of Baja California. The trouble is that each of the articles has the format of a trip report. As such there is not place for in depth descriptions of topics such as geology, history or ecology. Even the trips themselves are not presented with enough detail to serve as guides in the planning of one's own trips. Moreover, after reading a few of them, the format gets awfully repetitious, particularly the part about crossing the border into Mexicali. In short, this is not the sort of book one would sit down with to learn all about the canyons of Baja. Instead, it is a book that every once in a while you may wish to read a little of just to bring a bit of Baja back to mind. On the other hand, Basic Rockcraft is everything I hoped it would be. It is a well thought out, well organized book on the art of following the leader on a rock climb. Starting with the choice of clothing and boots, Robbins covers the use of ropes and slings, basic knots, belaying, the use of hardware (with the emphasis on removing it rather than placing it since the art of leading will be covered in the planned follow-up, Advanced Rockcraft, climbing techniques and finally the elusive subjects of ethics and style. Beyond question, Robbins is qualified to write such a book and he has the gift of explaining things clearly and understandably. The

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