"I heartily recommend Exceptional Mountains to anyone interested in how we interact with our wild places."—David Abrams, Quivering Pen
"Outdoorspeople will likely find much in Exceptional Mountains that will help them rethink their outdoor experiences. Likewise, anyone interested in understanding regional American identity, park management, and changing uses of wilderness will find stories of interest."—Rachel S. Gross, H-Environment
"Exceptional Mountains touches on many of the issues in the Northwest that also are confronting our national parks."—Kurt Repanshek, National Parks Traveler
"As a call to action Weltzien's book is motivating and recommended reading for wilderness resource managers and users, especially climbers."—Jeff L. Smoot, Western American Literature
"The book is strong in its examination of cultural attitudes and informative in its history of mass mountain sports. . . . Weltzien articulates well the attraction of the mountains and the threat that very attraction brings."—Judy Bentley, Pacific Historical Review
“Part environmental humanities treatise and part memoir, Weltzien’s study illuminates the cultural meaning of mountain wilderness.”—Scott Slovic, coeditor of Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture
“Open[s] up new approaches to mountain literature, where historical, environmental, commercial, and literary viewpoints make clearer why and how we have sanctified these high-altitude monuments. You won’t hike or look at these mountains again in the same way after reading this remarkable book.”—Bill Lang, author of Confederacy of Ambition: William Winlock Miller and the Making of Washington Territory
“To live under the volcano with Weltzien is to hike, sometimes anxiously, through fields of sociology, tourism, urban planning, and ecology—then to pause to contemplate lava domes, landscape painting, and indoor climbing walls. A book to engage both climbers and watchers.”—Laurie Ricou, author of The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest
