Alpine climbing in the 1870s and 80s by one of the men who did it: the first ascents, the bivouacs, the guides, and the arguments about whether any of it was worth doing. Dent was a surgeon in London and president of the Alpine Club, and he writes about the mountains without the usual reverence. This edition adds a gallery of 60 plates bound with the book, among them paintings by Caspar Wolf, Janus la Cour and Knud Baade, plus two restored and coloured illustrations.