Sicurezza in Montagna (mountain safety) by Tombini and Machetto

Obviously some topics are covered only in broad outline and would deserve more space...

Technical mountain handbooks are often boring and repetitive, so much so that they drive away even the most dedicated readers; instead, leafing through the pages of this book you find yourself pleasantly immersed and all of a sudden you discover you are attracted even by the more technical notions on gear.

Obviously some topics are covered only in broad outline and would deserve more space, but this task can be left to others; after all, we have the advantage of a technical summary that is easy to approach. We cannot help but recognise the technical accuracy of what is written; it may seem almost a given, since the authors are mountain guides with experience in Italy and overseas, but that is not always a certainty.

The photographs are all very beautiful and above all used in a practical way, not just as decoration; we find them at the beginning of each chapter to introduce the topic about to be covered and, indeed, they have the ability to literally catapult us into the atmosphere they portray. In the technical descriptions, the photos are skilfully used to show the gear, and in the manoeuvres they help us understand the steps. Perhaps a few frames are missing in the explanations of the knots and, above all, there are no captions to support the image sequences.

New and nice touches are the coloured boxes that highlight some curious details, frequent mistakes and warnings.

On the same subject see also Sicurezza e Prevenzione in Escursionismo (safety and prevention in hiking).