On mountains and yachts and Italian princes. Really.

Mount Bona:



"Finally, to the northwest, some two hundred miles off, a conical peak soared up....apparently of even greater height than the other two [Lucania and Bear]. This was christened the Bona, after a racing yacht then belonging to H.R.H."

(Excerpt from the The Ascent of Mount St. Elias by H.R.H. Prince Luigi Amedeo Di Savoia, Duke of the Abruzzi, 1900, p.160. by Filippo de Filippi)

And that my friends is how a mountain in Alaska ends up with the name of an Italian prince's yacht. At least the Duke of Abruzzi was a real mountaineer and not just some prominent guy who never climbed a mountain in his life but got a permanent memorial (I'm looking at you William McKinley).

I learned about the history of Mt. Bona's name from The American Alpine Journal Vol. XI, Number 2, 1959 which contained the delightful article "Naming Alaska's Mountains" by Francis Farquhar. I have fallen madly in love with the AAJ which is primarily comprised of first hand accounts of climbing and other mountaineering topics that are delightfully not about posing but being prepared. There is also a lot of science which makes me especially happy.

I found this volume while sitting on the floor of a great used bookstore with a massive selection of mountaineering and Alaska books. It was less than $10 which from wandering around the web is apparently a killer deal on old volumes of the AAJ. (Score!!) I wandered through a couple of dozen old issues looking for Alaska articles but never thought I would find one this cool. It fit so perfectly into something I wanted to write about but didn't even think I could properly research. Call it kismet.

This is why I love bookstores - you never know what you might find.

[Post pic of a title held in The American Alpine Club Henry S. Hall library collection of the 469-year-old book called 'On the Appreciation of Mountains'. OH HOW I COVET THIS.)