If you wanted to climb a mountain on the coast of B.C. in the early 19s, you had to pound nails down through the soles of a pair of leather boots, load up a canvas pack with overnight gear and canned food, take a boat trip to the spot where the mountain drops into the sea, and, with only a compass and perhaps a crudely drawn map (if anyone else had been there before) to guide you, bushwhack through underbrush and cross swift-flowing rivers by walking along fallen trees until you made it above the tree line, and, if you didn’t run out of time, achieve the summit. That is what Don and Phyllis Munday did for fun, both before and after they got married in 192, and their excellent adventures are described in A Passion for Mountains by Kathryn Bridge (Rocky Mountain Books). Bridge re-creates the climbing life with generous excerpts from Don’s published descriptions of the climbs (he kept scrupulous notes for any climbers who might follow), interviews with Phyllis (who lived for forty years after Don’s death), anecdotes from their friends and her own research. The Mundays, along with a gang of mountaineering friends, climbed all over B.C. and into Alberta—the list of their ascents, many of which were “firsts,” fills four pages—but in this well-written account, which I enjoyed from beginning to end, they come across as passionate about the mountains but humble about their achievements.