|
|
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Trouble above timberline, July 14, 2000
Those who grew up in part, as author Nicholas Howe did, climbing Mt. Washington, remember well their first experiences of encountering crosses and other memorials within an easy calm-weather walk and even within fog-free sight of shelter on this mountain. Brief accounts are shared in low somber voices among hikers of victims that gave up and lay down to die of hypothermia, leading neophytes visiting the mountain in warm, clear, placid weather to wonder how such a thing could repeatedly happen."Not Without Peril" brilliantly fleshes out historical background and details of nineteen mostly long-forgotten climbing tragedies, with dogged, disciplined library research and interviews. Most of these people who did die did not succumb to falls off cliffs or ropes. They most often died of exposure, on or near ordinary hiking trails, in treacherous weather that may have blown in with little warning, usually between May and October. The clearly labeled, story-specific topographical trail maps are particularly helpful and often omitted from other books of this genre. The key lessons (carry proper synthetic-fiber or wool cold-weather clothing at all times of the year, and descend immediately when weather conditions threaten or begin to deteriorate) are clear. Most victims ignored both of these rules, as countless trampers more fortunate than they still do, at their peril. The most compelling account in the book is its most detailed one, that from 1986 of Don Barr, who made a classic series of ill-advised decisions and collapsed from exposure during a raging late-August winter storm, half a mile from and above the AMC Madison Hut. The hut staff, 52 hut guests, and rescuers converging on the scene were unable to help in time. The new hut manager made the final, painfully haunting, but ultimately correct and wise-beyond-her-years decision to not risk further lives attempting a highly unlikely safe rescue. The rich detail, the interviews with major participants, the presence (and survival) of Barr's son and a companion, and the imagery of a frightful storm and a lonely death on a night from arctic hell make this account particularly harrowing. Some of the victims in "Not Without Peril" were experienced climbers who should have known better. Many were naïve, had more grit than sense, or suffered only the simple misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What's remarkable is how some of these victims, in spite of dazzlingly inadequate clothing and horrible weather conditions, managed to survive for days before finally succumbing. Others survived in spite of rescue techniques that are no longer used by trained rescuers to reduce the risk of additional, potentially fatal hazards to the injured. Detailed warnings and descriptions of hypothermia and rescue from it in the current AMC guidebook suggest death can overtake victims more quickly or surely than it did in some of these accidents, as it actually did to others in this book. Even more remarkable are the dogged determination, courage, and selflessness of the rescuers willing to endure hours and days of misery putting their lives at risk in weather conditions unimaginable to most of us for a small chance to save the lives of people who have often made foolish or at best uninformed choices. On the downside, "Not Without Peril" lacks a satisfying conclusion. It abruptly ends where the last story stops, making it seem more a collection of magazine articles than a unified book. One more chapter would have been the best place to offer advice on how to prevent, recognize, and treat hypothermia, and to offer some commentary on common climber mistakes and other threads running through the accounts. Also, this book has more run-on sentences than there have been hikers (128 identified here) who have died on or near Mt. Washington. Mr. Howe needs to get control of his commas and discover the clarity provided by periods and semi-colons. His manuscript was carefully researched and mostly artfully written, but ultimately reduced in impact by the frequent occurrence of this elementary grammatical error. His editor must have been oversleeping at an AMC hut.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
by Steven D. Smith
by Charles J. Jordan
by Appalachian Mountain Club Books
by Marianne O'Connor
