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As final exams approach, many Hamilton students are facing one last mountain of work before they can head home for the holidays. Perhaps appropriate for this season and providing a welcome break from all the studying, Hamilton welcomed prize-winning author Wade Davis on Dec. 12 to discuss his award-winning work, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest.

Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History Maurice Isserman discussed mountaineering on March 8 at the University of Michigan’s Mountaineering Culture Studies Group meeting. He was joined by Stewart Weaver of the University of Rochester with whom he co-authored the award-winning book Fallen Giants:  A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extreme (2008). Isserman and Weaver talked about the origin and evolution of their own work, as well as the future of mountaineering.

The Colorado River is one of the United States’ most impressive rivers. At 1,450 miles long, the river drains almost 250,000 square miles—10 percent of the United States—down the spine of the Continental Divide. The Colorado, though, is not as mighty as it once was. Because of population growth in the Southwest the Colorado no longer reaches the Pacific Ocean, but trickles dry in the deserts of northern Mexico. In his Nov. 1 talk in the Taylor Science Center, adventurer Jonathan Waterman detailed his journey down the Colorado and discussed the implications of the overuse of the river as a water resource.

James L. Ferguson Professor of History Maurice Isserman was presented with the University of Rochester’s Andrew Eiseman Writer’s Award for Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes on Dec. 10, in Rochester. Isserman and co-writer Stewart Weaver of the University of Rochester will share the award and its $1,000 prize.

An interview with James L. Ferguson Professor of History Maurice Isserman has been published in Grasping for Heaven: Interviews with North American Mountaineers by Frederic Hartemann and Robert Hauptman.

Bernadette McDonald visited Hamilton on Nov. 9 to discuss her experiences with some of the most outstanding Himalayan mountain climbers of the 20th century as she chronicled their lives in biographies. Her writing has taken her all over the world, driving her to ask personal questions, delve into complex characters, and develop countless friendships. Along the way, she dealt with difficult, “grumpy” personalities, faced exhausting climbs, read hundreds of letters and diary entries, and even learned to overcome personal fears.  

Mountaineering writer Bernadette McDonald will speak on the topic “Writing a Life: Himalayan Heroes,”  on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Red Pit, Kirner-Johnson Building. The event is free and open to the public.  A book sale and signing will follow McDonald’s presentation.

WAMC in Albany will feature a reading by Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History, on Thursday, Aug. 5, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. The new program airs each weekday at 7:37 a.m. and 3:56 p.m at 90.3 FM in the Clinton area.

Fallen Giants - A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes by Maurice Isserman, the James L. Ferguson Professor of History, and University of Rochester Professor Stewart Weaver was reviewed in the July 17 issue of Commonweal, the independent journal of opinion edited and managed by lay Catholics.