Rare Mountaineering Books Donated to WSU Libraries by Alums and Climbers

Will Gregg is WSU’s manuscripts librarian and works in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections department.

Climbing in the Himalayas, published in 1894, records W.M. Conway’s venture into the Kashmiri mountains, one of the earliest British narratives of climbing in the region. Expeditions of the era were as much scientific endeavors as they were mountain climbing forays, and Conway’s book is replete with maps, photographs, and scientific data. Works like Conway’s presaged a period described later by climber Walter Bonatti as “… the era when European countries picked off the 8,000m peaks in the same way they had colonies 100 years previously.”

When I saw the name in the voicemail inbox of my office phone, I wasn’t sure I was reading it right. “Is that really John Roskelley calling me?” I wondered. I recognized Roskelley’s name right away as a writer and accomplished mountaineer. What I didn’t know was that Roskelley was also a WSU alumnus and that he was interested in donating an exceptional collection of mountaineering books to the WSU Libraries.

Wild Life on the Rockies by Enos Mills, published in 1909, is an account of the natural world near Estes Park, Colorado, where Mills homesteaded at the age of 16. The mountains, and particularly Longs Peak, captivated Mills. “Among the best days I have had outdoors,” he wrote, “are the two hundred and fifty-seven that were spent as a guide on Long’s Peak.” Lesser known than kindred spirit John Muir, to whom he dedicated the book, Mills was nevertheless instrumental in establishing Rocky Mountain National Park and influenced the burgeoning conservation movement in the United States.

Collecting the books, over 350 important works on mountaineering published between 1892 and 2012, was the labor of not just one person, but three: Roskelley, his lifelong friend and climbing partner Chris Kopczynski, and their mentor, Joe Collins.

Roskelley and Kopczynski, WSU Class of 1971, started climbing as teenagers with the Spokane Mountaineers, an organization of which Collins was a notable member. Collins lead Kopczynski and Roskelley on one of their first climbing trips, a summit of Mount Shuksan, and would watch the two accomplish internationally recognized feats in the mountaineering world as adults.

Collins, in addition to being a prolific climber, collected mountaineering literature and had a special passion for signed editions. Collins urged his former protégés to help with gathering signed copies. They carried along books from his library to far-flung destinations and returned them, signed, to Spokane.

Reinhold Messner’s signature can be found inside this 1974 first English edition of The Seventh Grade. Messner, regarded by some as the greatest mountaineer of all time, describes a bold, new style of climbing in this book. In contrast to the large, multiweek expeditions that define mountaineering in the mid-20th century, Messner advocated a more aesthetic style of climbing, which focused on small teams using minimal equipment and foregoing supplemental oxygen. Messner’s techniques, known as alpine style climbing, have grown to dominate modern-day mountaineering.

Supplemented by Collins’ own collecting, the result was a wealth of mountaineering literature signed by dozens of authors, including Nepalese-Indian Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist Edmund Hillary, and Italian climber, explorer, and author Reinhold Messner.

After Collins’ death in 2023, Kopczynski and Roskelley began to plan for the collection’s future and ultimately decided to give the collection to WSU to be used and enjoyed by future generations. A few weeks after Roskelley deposited the unexpected message in my voicemail, I visited Spokane to see the books in person.

Mountains of North America is a 1982 anthology of North America’s most notable peaks written by Fred Beckey. A climber well known for his many first ascents in the Pacific Northwest, Beckey was also a dedicated archival researcher and packs his books with historical narrative. The inscription reads, “To Joe [Collins]—May the spirit of the mountains never leave you. Fred Beckey.”

As a librarian and an amateur mountaineer, I was thrilled with the collection. It was impressive enough to stand on its own merits, but it also supplemented a body of outdoor recreation literature in the WSU Libraries that, while robust, previously contained only a few works related to climbing and mountaineering.

Mountaineering is a sport or endeavor that figures large in our region’s history. Many books from the collection document the natural and human histories of Pacific Northwest peaks, including works by Seattle rock climber, mountaineer, and author Fred Beckey; famed Seattle climber Joseph Hazard, who forwarded the vision of the Pacific Crest Trail proposed in 1926 by “tramper” and founding faculty member of future Western Washington University Catherine Montgomery; and Alaskan bush pilot and lifesaver Don Sheldon. These regional works are matched by books that have a seat in the pantheon of worldwide mountaineering literature, immersing the reader in some of the most notable ascents of the last 125 years.

Author Will Gregg, left, celebrates successfully reaching the summit of Mount McKinley (Denali) in June.

Preparations for transferring the books coincided with my own preparations to climb Mount McKinley (Denali), North America’s highest peak. Though it doesn’t begin to rival Kopczynski and Roskelley’s own accomplishments, it was, for me, a massive undertaking. The two veteran mountaineers were kind enough to pass along some words of advice, encouragement, and—eventually—congratulations.

Exactly two weeks after successfully reaching the summit in June, I was back in Spokane packaging the books for transport to Pullman. The collection has now joined a rare book library of over 60,000 volumes in Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections. The pleasure of seeing the books on our shelves is second only to the pleasure of meeting and working with Roskelley and Kopczynski, who had such obvious care for the collection and for its place at WSU.

Those interested in seeing the books can stop by MASC between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, or write to mascref@wsu.edu.