Looking for a little New Year's inspiration? Look no farther than the annual American Alpine Journal: The World's Most Significant Climbs. Almost 400 pages of climbing porn (Dear AAJ: I never thought this would happen to me…) chock full of photos, mostly black and white, some color, all amazing.
Fully indexed, the AAJ contains eleven in-depth trip reports up front and a glorious 270 pages of shorter descriptions of climbs and expeditions around the world, divided into geographical chapters. Featured in 2010 are climbs by Joe Puryear, victim of a tragic recent accident, Marko Prezelj, Jack Tackle and others.
Section reports from seven of sixteen sections are included, plus book reviews (Ed Viesturs, Royal Robbins, Steve House, John Long, et al) and a memorial section that includes the names of legendary climbers. Some names, like Riccardo Cassin (1909-2009), you somehow expect to see. Too many more names take us by surprise, even having read of their deaths last year. AAJ reminds us of both the soaring beauty and the tragic price of the big mountains.