Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams

The June 1962 issue of Summit magazine arrived with a revelation: a story about an unknown, unclimbed range somewhere in British Columbia. Spectacular towers of raw, bare rock scratched the sky, and if the pictures weren’t enticement enough to chase “Riesenstein Peak,” the caption surely was: “Who will be the first to climb it?” It was a setup, of course, a sly joke and commentary on the peakbagging grandiosity of the time, and Katie Ives, the literary-minded editor of Alpinist, uses the hoax to frame her exploration of our complex relationship with “the mountains of the mind,” as she quotes Robert Macfarlane—the dreams, longings, and imaginings of people who yearn for summits. It’s a high aim with big thoughts, but Ives roots Imaginary Peaks in the very grounded lives of the three pranksters who knew that all journeys are inner ones and that what matters most about the mountains isn’t getting on top, but who we are when we’re in them.