These essays mirror thirty years of an extraordinarily varied mountaineering life, and show equally the author's enjoyment in the quiet places and his taste for raw adventure. The satisfaction of solitary fell-running and solo climbing on Welsh hills contrasts with the larger excitements of Alpine north faces and Himalayan exploration.

Throughout runs the theme of small groups uncluttered with the paraphernalia of modern expeditions and of knowing the satisfaction of self-sufficiency. That tradition has proud roots - in Meade, Longstaff, Shipton and Tilman - and it is celebrated again within these pages.

Overlaying the trials and tribulations, the successes and failures, is a more troubled subject - that of man's carelessness in conserving the wild lands, whether it be the irresponsible litter across a Karakorum landscape, the ruthless commercialism of large-scale logging in British Columbia, or a despoilation of a Welsh hill. No easy solutions are offered, but our attention is unerringly drawn and the example is implicit.