Norway: The Northern Playground: Sketches of Climbing and Mountain Exploration in Norway between 1872 and 1903 (David Durkan / Swami Kailash Publications) Hardcover – January 5, 2026

150th Anniversary – Six Peaks in Six DaysFull unabridged original 1904 edition, but without the fold-out maps.William Cecil Slingsby climbed extensively in Britain and in the Alps, but it was Norway that drew him – 21 times between 1872 and 1921. He explored passes, glaciers and made numerous repeat and first ascents in Hardanger, Jotunheimen, Josterdalen, Sunnmøre, Romsdalen, Lofoten and Troms. He penned this book after his 15th visit – and it is reprinted this year to mark the 150th Anniversary of his climbing Six Peaks in Six Days.William Cecil Slingsby was one of Britain's most accomplished mountaineers. Not just of his time, but one who stands out today – as a shining torch to exploration and mountaineering at the very highest level. His way of climbing snow and ice was termed 'Snow Craft' – of which he was a master, as he was on rock.Three in Norway by Two of Them has long been regarded as the travellers'book on Norway from this period, but Norway: The Northern Playground surpasses even that classic. For here we have a progression of exploration, over 21 visits, not just one summer. We see the country and its people through the eyes of a young man, inexperienced, travelling by coastal steamer, on horseback and on foot as he journeys the west coast of Norway, and back south again. We see him and companions crossing Europe's largest glacier, where no one had been before. One has to laugh, as they cross from one valley to the next over seemingly impassable walls of hostile black rock and tumbling ice, into Ringsdallen. Here the young girls who looked after the goats and cows in the summer pastures fled in fright. Understandable, for out of the walls of ice came giant men in strange dress, with long bushy beards, claws on their feet and giant axes, talking in strange tongues!Norway: The Northern Playground is a classic in every way, and should grace the shelves of any self-respecting mountain library. Read more