At head of title: Raccolte di documentazione del Museo nazionale della montagna.
Text in Italian and English.
The fourth book in the series is devoted to the registers kept by mountain huts and hotels, and to the Fuhrerbuchs, or 'testimonials', kept by mountain guides, diaries written in a spontaneous and informal hand that conserve the tales of great mountaineers, simple hikers or day-trippers and that stand witness to a climb or holiday. (from back cover)
The early mountaineers. Climbing for survival ; What mountains mean ; Mountains and Christianity -- Climbing for science and art. A new frontier ; The cultural heights ; The first summiteers -- The Golden Age of alpinism. A fashion for climbing ; The price of adventure ; "An easy day for a lady" ; Birth of modern alpinism -- Beyond the Alps. The greater ranges ; Climbing in the New World ; Alpinism in Japan -- Slaying the giants. The greatest show on Earth ; Back of an envelope ; The Himalayan Golden Age -- The age of extremes. The North faces ; The unwritten rules ; Women mountaineers ; Fast and light -- Mountain directory. "Celebrating a rich tradition of bravery, thirst for knowledge, and pursuit of glory, Mountaineers tells the stories of the pioneers who first scaled the heights of this planet."--P. [2] of jacket