“Galen Rowell: A Retrospective” ($50, hardcover; $39.95, softcover; Sierra Club Books) is a collection of photographs from a professional so talented it kind of takes your breath away. We lost Rowell far too soon. He and his wife and business partner, Barbara Cushman Rowell, were killed in a plane crash in 2002 — but by the age of 62, the world-renowned climber and adventurer had amassed quite the repertoire of shots, from his first one-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro to his first ascent of Great Trango Tower in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya to the first ski circumnavigation of Denali. Rowell also took magnificent wildlife photos — and won the Ansel Adams award for it in 1984 — and folks took great shots of him, as well, including one of him as the oldest person to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan at age 57. The humble Rowell was one of a kind, and this book is quite the treat. Kyle Wagner
