William Bromley, after serving as a Royal Marines mountaineer in the Italian Alps in WWII, finally settles down, quietly teaching history at a London boarding school--until an old comrade reappears and calls in a bargain the two struck during the war. The pair set off back to the Alps and face avalanches, lost food and gear, and freezing temperatures. Written in clipped, Hemingway-esque prose, remarkably rich in imagery and detail.  (ALP31, $15.00)