Tomaž Humar
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This monographic
edition of 208 pages and 209 photographs
brings descriptions of Humar´s most
important mountaineering ascents.
Introductions to the book were
written by Reinhold Messner and
Carlos Carsolio, two of Humar's
great friends and admirers.
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About the book
(article with the title "Man from
Mars explains self" has appeared on
the Jackson Hole Website in 2001 and
was written by
David Swift) |
Since the sport was born, mountain climbing is never without someone
somewhere "pushing the limits." The term,
a tired cliché in many realms, remains
the raison d'etre in world-class alpinism.
Tomaz Humar is the limit pusher of the
modern climbing arena. ("Is" in this case
is more like "was". More on that in a
moment.) Humar is a conceptual artist,
an astronaut
still fighting gravity.
He picks lines on extremely steep and
rapidly shedding mountain faces, routes
that are at one level esthetic but at another
level are rottenly berzerko exposed. For
days at a time he lives on the edge of
space and time, taunting a demise of pure
and rapid vanishment.
Humar took mountaineering into new frontiers
of ignoring danger. He wasn't the only
one to tippy-toe on such a narrow edge
but he does have the distinction of living
to tell about it.
In short, Humar is barely of this planet.
His story, like all world-class mountaineers'
stories, must be told. So it is, in a new
book whose title spins the words "impossible"
and "no way".
Humar frankly admits that he's glad he's
had to slow down. In fact, it looks like
Tomaz Humar is going to live for a long,
long time.
Last October 30 Humar broke both legs.
He fell nine feet. In his house. Backwards.
Down an empty stairwell.
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When he fell "No
Impossible Ways" was nearly
ready for the printer.
If he didn't know what to write
on the jacket flaps, he suddenly
got
some timely material that included
a novel's worth of irony. Like a
true hard man, Humar recaps his household
accident with a bit of melancholy,
more humor, and ample gratefulness
that he wasn't hurt worse.
I've read smatterings of No Impossible
Ways. (I swiped it from a friend
for 24 hours when he wasn't looking.)
Humar's prose is peppy, to say the
least, and the man is not shy about
cutting to the great, deep, vast,
ponderable questions about the very
nature of existence. Humar is a Slovenian,
a man born into a region that produces
more good writer-philosophers per
capita than any place outside of
South America. |
Chapters
are titled "The Third Eye" and "A
Lightness of Being". I'm guessing
that Humar is being tongue-in-cheek for
he relishes
examining the already well-examined absurdities
of mountaineering. He's a post-revelatory
existential every inch of the way. His
climbing proves that.
Existentialism abounds. No Impossible
Ways, a coffee table book, barely lists
an author credit. There's no table of
contents, no index, no page numbers. (I'm
guesing
150-200.) The only page approaching frippery
is the anointment up front, a preface written
by an admirer attesting to the author's
innate goodness, as prefaces invariably
do. This preface happens to be by Reinhold
Messner. If you are not from mountaineering
circles, this is the finger of God scribing.
If there are other mountaineering books
that don't have a picture of pretty, pretty
mountains on the cover, I've never seen
one until now. Here's another first: this
might be the first coffee table book whose
spare, somber jacket suggests it's literally
a heavy philosophy book. (Nietzsche is
pietzsche!) The cover is a rich, silky-smooth
black with not-quite-as-dark lettering
and a splotch of blood-red type. Under
the jacket, the cloth binding is more black
and featurelessness save a lightly embossed
title.
"No Impossible Ways" is one
of the most beautiful books ever. The layout
is sleek,
modern, colorful, happy, without a trace
of chic. Color reproduction isn't far
from having a slide show right under your
nose.
The choice of photos, the flow, the occasional
blockbuster shot intermixed with all that
is glorious about life in the mountains,
makes "No Impossible Ways" a classic in
a field that has no shortage of classics.
Visually, this book is the final word on
what mountains offer.
More on "No Impossible Ways" when and
if it becomes available in the United States. |
