Ways to Go: Rediscovering Travel as told through Two Himalaya Adventures – 1971 and 2023Edited by Bob Henderson and Torbjørn YdegaardPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Michelle Shaw$29.95 ISBN 9781778690549 In most mountaineering exploits that I’ve read or heard about, the point always seems to be about reaching the summit – and the blood, sweat and tears involved to get there. Ways to Go explores a completely different approach. How can we travel more intentionally and responsibly with less impact on the world around us? The book is shaped around a particular journey. In 1971, three Norwegian mountaineers – Arne Næss, Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng, and Nils Faarlund – embarked on an expedition to the Sherpa community of Beding, Nepal, located in the Rolwaling Valley near the sacred mountain of Tseringma. The men were scholars, philosophers and activists and their perspective was vastly different to most of the mountaineers of their day. They weren’t interested in simply forging ahead to reach the summit of a sacred mountain regardless of the wishes of the local community. They had a more focused, thoughtful approach – and they decided theirs would be an anti-expedition. Ways to Go explores the development of eco-mountaineering and…

Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing LandscapeEdited by Bob Henderson and Sean BlenkinsopPublished by Your Nickel’s Worth PublishingReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$29.95 ISBN 978-1-988783-81-9 This beautifully-bound anthology of 21 essays written by paddlers and edited by educators—and intrepid canoeists and guides—Bob Henderson (ON) and Sean Blenkinsop (BC) deserves a much longer review than this 500-word assessment. In short: it’s extraordinary. Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing Landscape contains a wealth of thought-provoking essays on the rivers, lakes, and oceans the diverse contributors have navigated via canoe or kayak—often in groups but sometimes solo—and it examines the paddlers’ interior worlds as they contemplate being present; history; culture; relationships with plants, animals and other creatures; Indigenous Canada (land and territorial acknowledgements and “Settler Responsibilities” are included); ecology; climate change; and, as Bruce Cockburn contributes in his Foreword, the “soul-expanding space” where one can get “a glimpse of the world as it was made.” Maps, black and white photos, and the editors’ numerous “Suggested Reading” lists are superb accompaniments to the layered essays. Henderson has previously published books on heritage travel and outdoor life, and Blenkinsop, a professor at Simon Fraser University who writes about “wild pedagogies” and “ecologizing education,” agree that as…