Los Angeles Times Daniel Duane does for the nature of California what John Muir did, no question. He captures the thrill and the enzymatic connection between our evolution (physical, conscious, you name it) and our environment. He makes a reader feel the majesty of California, no less so than on the face of El Capitan. As he did with surfing, Duane captures the aesthetic of climbing as well as its unique spiritual challenge. He distinguishes between routes: "The Salathe Wall.meanders all over El Capitan's southwest face because [previous climbers] were determined to reduce the use of bolts.[T]heir route, as a result, really does express a belief about an ideal way of being in the world." And then there are the men who have climbed El Capitan: Royal Robbins, Warren Harding, Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost to name a few, Duane captures these men at the point when their souls intersect with the rock, even in his description of a handshake: "His fingers," he writes of Jim Bridwell, "claw-like forms that grip yours with an odd kind of passivity, as if this spring-loaded steel trap just can't bring itself to engage for anything short of a hammer.

" Finally, there's Duane himself on El Cap, describing his third failure: "My partner at that time, Russ McBride, was so unafraid at belays that even as we dangled in the Stoveleg Cracks, he kept right on reading 'One Hundred and One No Down Payment Formulas: How to Get Rich Quick in the Real Estate Market.' I was, however, utterly and desperately terrified once again. (I actually wept with fear, babbling incoherently about how I loved my mother and wanted to live to get married and have babies of my own someday.)" All the greatest adventure writers must describe their fears to us, and Duane is generous, funny and honest about his fear and his awe. -- -.