WINTER DANCE

Contact: Joe Josephson
First Ascent Press, LLC
(406) 582-7908 joe@firstascentpress.com or waterfallice@mac.com

NEW PUBLISHING COMPANY, FIRST ASCENT PRESS, DEBUTS IN NOVEMBER WITH WINTER DANCE, SELECT ICE CLIMBS.

Bozeman, MT, August 12, 2004 – First Ascent Press, LLC announces the upcoming publication of Winter Dance, Select Ice Climbs in Southern Montana and Northern Wyoming, by company founder and long-time ice climber and writer Joe Josephson.
With 320 pages detailing more vertical feet of ice and mixed terrain than any guide in America, Winter Dance covers 300 routes from the Bozeman area, the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, to the South Fork valley near Cody. Presented in full-color throughout (6” x 9”) with over 380 photos, many of first ascents previously unpublished, this guide traces the development of sport from some of the earliest, ground breaking explorations through the continent’s most challenging mixed climbs.
Dedicated to the late Alex Lowe, and named after his favorite ice route, Winter Dance will be launched in early November at the prestigious Banff Mountain Book Festival to kick off the winter climbing season. It will retail for $29.95 US.
Bringing together the stories and photographs from 25 years of route development, Winter Dance represents the first time, in-depth and comprehensive coverage has been written for the area. It includes historic routes like: Rock Creek Falls (1968), the first “front-point” route in America; all of Alex Lowe’s ground-breaking mixed routes in Hyalite and Cody, which remain among the most serious leads ever; to the most concentrated ice climbing venue in the lower 48, the South Fork of the Shoshone River in Wyoming.
Founded in 2004 by outdoor industry veteran Joe Josephson, First Ascent Press is a dedicated publisher of distinctive non-fiction narratives and interpretive guidebooks. For fifteen years, Josephson has been a writer and photographer of the alpine and ice climbing scene around the continent. Widely known for his guide to ice in the Canadian Rockies, Winter Dance is Josephson’s fifth book and first under the First Ascent imprint.
“Winter Dance is the culmination of all my years writing and thinking about ice and mixed climbing,” says Josephson. “Aside from continually looking for new, interesting ways to describe an ice route, this book was really an effort to bring the historical and personal narratives of first ascents together with the modern realities of the sport. Not only did I want to create a guide that is motivating and gives the needed information to find the routes, but also one that excites the many, new enthusiasts about the early explorers of the sport whom have paved the way, and still influence this spectacular activity.”
“After having the incredible fortune to interview most of the region’s first ascent activists, many which graciously donated time, information and photographs,” Josephson declares, “this book is a testament to generations of the climbing experience.” Along with photography from world-class shooters like Kristoffer Erickson, Bobby Model, and Chris Noble, the book features a Foreword written by Mark Twight.

Visit www.firstascentpress.com for more information regarding upcoming titles.