Mountain N' Air Books

Mountain N' Air Books was created out of necessity. We had just closed our sporting goods storeï we sold Outdoors clothing and equipment, cross country skis, climbing, hiking gear, and had an excellent books/maps section within the store and had grown used to regular meals, clothing, and permanent shelter.

Mountain N' Air Sports retail shop was open for exactly 10 years to the date of its closure. On April 1st, 1985 we locked the doors, paid all our bills, turned the keys back to the landlord, and left with a decade-long lesson and an idea.

I needed a job!

The bookshelves and map cases occupy only 15% of the total store space in sporting goods stores, and the books and maps inventory value was less than 10% of the goods for sale in the entire place, turning over about 9 or ten times a year. It was the most profitable department.

Purchasing and maintaining over 2500 titles, from no less than 200 publishers who resented making small shipments of one or two titles. The cost of freight and writing purchase order was absurd. The seeds of an idea fell in fertile grounds.

Remember, I needed a job.

We started Mountain N' Air Books, specializing in selling outdoors, nature guides, and travel books to Outdoor Retailers and other Booksellers. Today we serve a handful of excellent clients by helping them control and maintain a balanced inventory of books and maps. We also became publishers.
1990
WE'RE NOW PUBLISHERS
Mountain N' Air Books published its first title, Rock and Roses, climbing and mountaineering stories told by some of the best women climbers in the world. Edited by Professor Mikel Vause. This title is now in its second edition. Sixteen new essays were added to the original book.

Rock and Roses was the first climbing book to be published in the USA, to carry on the women's views of what had been a male-dominated sport.