Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Jill Fredston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

Every year around the globe, people cross paths with avalanches—some massive, some no deeper than a pizza box—with deadly results. Avalanche expert Jill Fredston stalks these so-called freaks of nature, forecasting where and when they will strike, deliberately triggering them with explosives, teaching potential victims how to stay alive, and leading rescue efforts when tragedy strikes. 

 

In Snowstruck, Fredston draws on decades of personal experience to take “avalanches out of the statistical realm and into the human one” (Skiing Magazine): a skier making what may prove his final decision, a victim buried so tightly that he can’t move a finger, rescuers racing both time and weather, forecasters treading the line between reasonable risk and danger. Fredston brings to life the awesome forces of nature that can turn the mountains deadly—and the equally inexo­rable forces of human nature that lure us time and again into treacherous terrain.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Co-director, with her husband, Doug Fesler, of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center, the author is an expert on both the beauty and dangers of snowy mountain ranges. Combining the expressive reverence for nature evident in an earlier work, Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic's Edge, with her own experiences, Fredston sounds a wake-up call to those who ski, hike or drive snow machines through snow-packed peaks and passes. Avalanches, she says, are not completely unpredictable, and can be avoided by reading the snow scrupulously and picking routes carefully. Drawing also on her husband's research on the history of avalanches in Alaska, Fredston describes how she and Fesler teach those who enjoy the mountains the best ways to minimize their risk. She presents harrowing accounts of rescue efforts the two have led, highlighting fatal accidents that might have been avoided. Fredston details, for example, the death of her friend Todd, an experienced skier, whose joy in the sport overcame caution when he and his comrades embarked on a last run that sparked a deadly avalanche. Fredston conveys the emotional toll too many mountain deaths have taken on the couple as well as their sense of mission to prevent future tragedies.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This seems to be the era of a genre perhaps best called nature-adventure-disaster. Fredston, who lives with her husband in the mountains above Anchorage, Alaska, has spent the years tracking avalanches in an effort to prevent disasters. Fredston has rescued many skiers trapped by avalanches--one was so deeply entombed that he could only move one finger. She says that avalanches most often kill by suffocation, although broken necks and other forms of fatal trauma have become increasingly common as people jump into ever more ruthless terrain. "Poisoned by their own carbon dioxide emissions, most victims begin to lose consciousness within four minutes, which is a good thing, as they will use air at a slower rate," she writes. "Brain damage may set in after eight minutes." Fredston writes that avalanches are like fish; they tend to run in schools, and when one has occurred, more are likely. With black-and-white photography throughout, this book is an electrifying account of the dangers of avalanches, their causes, their victims, and--thanks to Fredston--sometimes their victims' rescue. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151012490
• ASIN: B00155M2M8
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Survival Skills

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars After all is said and done human nature may be the biggest obstacle in preventing avalanche deaths., March 6, 2006

By 

Paul Tognetti "The real world is so much more... (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches (Hardcover)

Human beings are a pretty stubborn lot. People insist on building expensive new abodes along the San Andreas fault. Others ignore the dangers posed by hurricanes and build homes and hotels right on the water all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States. It is not a question of "if" devastation will strike these areas but rather a question of "when". Likewise, over the past quarter century as people play and build in ever more remote areas of this country the threat of death or serious injury at the hands of an avalanche have increased dramatically. This is particularly true in the State of Alaska.

For more than two decades author Jill Fredston and her husband Doug Fesler have been fighting the good fight in our nations largest state trying to educate everyone about the dangers posed by avalanches. The results have been mixed. In "Snowstruck" Jill Fredston speaks of the exhiliration of working in the wilds of Alaska and of the heartbreak when individuals gamble and lose their lives to an avalanche. What is so frustrating to people like Jill and Doug is that most of the folks who are killed in avalanches are experienced individuals who really should know better. In "Snowstruck: In The Grip of Avalanches" Jill Fredston explains how she goes about the task of predicting where an avalanche might occur and what is involved in deliberately triggering them with explosives. In addition, you will accompany Jill and Doug on a number of heart wrenching rescue missions. You will quickly come to understand how frequently these rescue missions become recovery missions. It is very sad particularly in cases where Doug and Jill know the victim.

I found "Snowstruck: In The Grip of Avalanches" particularly interesting because being from Rhode Island it is a topic I knew virtually nothing about. Impressive photographs at the beginning of each chapter further illustrate the magnitude and destructive power of avalanches. If you enjoy the great outdoors this is a book you are going to want to read. Recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a rush of adrenaline, April 4, 2006

By 

Dustin Shannon (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches (Hardcover)

This book is awesome. Expertly written, Jill can bring you from your living room to feeling like you are there, participating in the avalanche or the rescue. Having had a good friend perish in an avalanche, who in fact, was dug up by Jill and her husband, this book was so intense that while it is normally a book that you would read from start to finish, it was so superbly written that many chapters would make the memories come rushing back, prompting a break, if only for half an hour before being so compelled to read on. I would recommend this book to anyone, outdoor lover or not.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry from a scientist, April 11, 2006

By 

C. Schomaker "cschomaker" (FL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches (Hardcover)

Snowstruck is a fascinating book from an actual scientific expert involved with avalanche rescue, prediction and study, but it reads more like the great adventure narratives from writers like Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger. Smart, exciting, and thought-provoking.