Mountain Survival

The time of the American mountain man was not to reach its peak until the mid-19th century, but the man who served as the prototype for the cultural genre hailed from an earlier age in which the new United States had scarcely established its most basic structural tenets. A member of the original Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, John Colter’s multiple journeys to the northwest country of present-day Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho were first-time events in the development of the continent.

Ian was the one who chased the majestic buck into the forest. (His motto: act first, think later.) Kendra didn't want to become separated from the other sixth graders, but she followed Ian anyway, despite what her analytical mind told her. PJ followed him too. Even though he was scared, he figured he might catch some amazing footage with his video camera. They all hoped to return to the hiking trail before anyone noticed they were gone. However, the mountain had other plans for them: dark, sinister plans that only nightmares are made of.

Encounters in Avalanche Country tells the story of mountain communities' responses to disaster over a century of social change and rapid industrialization. As mining and railway companies triggered new kinds of disasters, ideas about environmental risk and responsibility were increasingly negotiated by mountain laborers, at the elite levels among corporations, and in socially charged civil suits.

What happens when an EMP sends the West Coast back into the stone age? What happens when all means of transportation and communication suddenly vanish? What happens when you can’t call for help? What happens when the only person you can rely on is yourself? As society falls into dismay, Carolyn Towne charges headlong into the escalating chaos to protect the only thing she holds dear: her family. 

In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit Everest via the South Col route. Roughly two weeks after Whittaker's achievement, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, fellow American mountaineers on the same expedition, became the first climbers ever to summit the world's highest peak via the dangerous and forbidding West Ridge—a route on which only a handful of climbers have since succeeded.

Kelton Fielding has always felt out of place, never sure what to say to his peers who, truth be told, only tolerate him. When a snowmobile race is announced at McCall’s annual Winter Festival, Kelton sees his chance to impress his classmates. He’ll fix up his old sled and get it running, and he’s planned out a risky shortcut through the wilderness that he’s sure will win him the prize. But when the popular Swann Siddiq and Kelton’s nemesis follow him into the backcountry, Kelton quickly runs into trouble and realizes that the competition is the least of his worries.

By the age of seven, Kyle Coon had his second eye removed and became totally blind. Discovering a Life Without Limits is the true story of Kyle going from the darkness of blindness to the world's mountain peaks while navigating everyday life. Through the journey, Kyle learns how to trust a world he cannot see and how to conquer the fear of the unknown, while asking the listener a simple question: Are you ready to live a Life Without Limits?

In April 2014 Mark Horrell went on a mountaineering expedition to Nepal, hoping to climb Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world, which shares a base camp and climbing route with Mount Everest. But when a devastating avalanche swept across the Khumbu Icefall, he got more than he bargained for. Suddenly he found himself witnessing the greatest natural disaster Everest had ever seen.

Impossible! Suicidal! That's 13-year-old Cat's reaction to her impulsive, irrepressible cousin Ty's harebrained scheme to spread the ashes of their late fathers at the summit of the same treacherous mountain that claimed both their lives. But when Ty sets off on his own - stealing her dog and her father's ashes - Cat is forced to follow against her better judgment. Things deteriorate quickly. Avalanches, dangerous glacial crevasses, and a blinding blizzard force Cat to put all her mountaineering knowledge to work if they are to survive.

In Wilderness and Mountain Lore explores the stories and adventures of visiting a mountain wilderness retreat over a 50-year period with a group of friends. We nearly always were able to reserve the only two cabins for the second week of June. Domke Lake is located in the North Cascades wilderness area of North Central Washington State. There is no electricity or phone service of any kind along with little change other than what nature has wrought.

When he discovers that he has terminal cancer, retired heart surgeon Ben Givens refuses to simply sit back and wait. Instead he takes his two beloved dogs and goes on a last hunt, determined to end his life on his own terms. But as the people he meets and the memories over which he lingers remind him of the mystery of life’s endurance, his trek into the American West becomes much more than a final journey.

Ben and Helen Harrison set aside their comfortable life in San Francisco and headed to Costa Rica to build a 38-foot sailboat. They had never built a boat before...Then they had to get it down a mountainside to the water, and from there sail to Key West, where they now live. It was a dauntless task and a challenge that put their marriage, their sanity, and their very lives on the line. A real-life adventure that will make you feel like you’ve got a berth on La Dulce Mujer Pintada, the Sweet Painted Lady.

The siblings are pressed to use their skills and wits as they face the trials of being alone and afraid. Not only do they have to find food and shelter, but they quickly learn that there is something very unusual about the mountain they are lost on. They are threatened by natural disasters, as well as evil creatures who seek to harm them and trap them and fill them with fear and doubt. When the siblings get separated and the evil creatures capture Socorro, they almost give up hope of ever surviving and finding their parents again.

When New York native Samuel Dubois moves to Montana, he learns the hard way that his favorite fantasy novel doesn’t help when he’s lost in the wilderness. Surrounded by animals that scream like creatures from his books, towering, creaky trees, and blood-sucking insects, Samuel spends the worst night of his life perched on top of a rock with only his book and the moon for comfort.

Barney wasn't happy when his parents moved him from the swamps of Louisiana to the mountains of Tennessee, but that was before he met Silas and Billie. Now it's nothing but fun, sun, and mountain air, until a large boot print is found near the creek behind the barn.

Caje Amis and his father are mountain folk, they live off the land and have few interactions with more sophisticated people. But at the onset of an especially harsh winter, the two take shelter with distant relatives. The adjustment to their new life is an easy one for Caje, but impossible for his father, and the elder Amis ends up abandoning his son and vanishing into the cold!

The adventure continues when Abby and Derick begin their second semester at Cragbridge Hall, the most prestigious secondary school in the world. But when Grandpa Cragbridge admits them to the Council of Keys - a secret group of people who have keys to travel back in time - strange things begin to happen. One by one, members are found unconscious and unable to wake, their keys stolen. Now Abby and Derick must scramble to figure out who is behind the attacks before they become the next victims, which would give their enemy the power to change the past forever.

The Seventh Taking is the chilling tale of a young man’s journey through harsh mountain country in his search for the girl he loves and the two friends who dare to brave the dangerous elements - both human and natural - to support a friend. When Joy Vincent disappears in the Blue Summit Mountains of Tennessee while vacationing with her family, park rangers begin an intensive search for the Louisiana high-school junior. Seven weeks later, the search is abandoned, and authorities conclude that Joy voluntarily ran away because of a fight with her father.

Grab your wooden ice axe and coarse nylon ropes, because you're about to embark on a 1960s-style mountain climbing adventure - and there's sure to be plenty of fun, fear, and excitement along the way.

This riveting and uplifting memoir by Vanessa O’Brien, record-breaking American-British explorer, takes you on an unexpected journey to the top of the world’s highest mountains. Long before she became the first American woman to summit K2 and the first British woman to return from its summit alive, Vanessa O’Brien was a feisty suburban Detroit teenager forced to reinvent her world in the wake of a devastating loss that destroyed her family.