Death, Daring and Disaster: Search and Rescue in the National Parks

Rating:
Summary: Take it with Salt
Review: An excellent collection of decades of searches and rescues in National Parks all over the USA. Each search and rescue story runs from a paragraph to a page or two. Helpful photos are included for many of the stories, plus the book has great chronologies for each decade and a very good index. The author highlights National Parks' efforts - often ignoring, misconstruing, or discounting the efforts of other agencies involved in many of the search and rescues - a bias which occasionally mars this book.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling Gathering of Varied Narratives
Review: As the NPS's Chief National Emergency Services Coordinator the author spent many years in the search and rescue business. In the course of his career he had access to the original records and was able to select most dramatic and cautionary stories. Each covers at most a few pages but the reader will want to keep reading. Very hard to put down and a substantial amount of research and good writing.
Most emphasis is on the post 1940 period since WW II when the development of modern aerial search and rescue techniques, as pioneered in the armed services, influenced the postwar organization and methods. The Air Force became responsible for inland activities and the Coast Guard for the sea margins. Ground based searches remained the primary responsiblity of the big land management agencies such as the Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management.

Rating:
Summary: Left me wanting to know more
Review: If you are interested in the subject matter, it would be hard not to enjoy this book. I was amazed at the number of bodies that had to be left in the parks because they couldn't be retreived for one reason or another. I was also surprised to learn how many planes had crashed onto the lands or into the mountains of national parks. There are also the things you would expect, such as falls from mountain climbing and people who get lost while hiking. It was sad to read about the rangers who risked their lives and became heroes to save others, only to read about some of them succumbing to the dangers of the park themselves later on in the book. Many of the stories made me wish there was additional information, because I wanted to know more about what happened to these people. Overall a very engrossing book.

Rating:
Summary: A Dandy Read
Review: Written by a man who participated in nearly 1,000 search and rescue missions and served as the National Park Service's first National Emergency Services Coordinator, this book covers the history of search and rescue in the National Parks. From the 1870s to 1997 we see what rescuers face in attempting to save lives. Farabee lets us get a glimpse of rescues before the advent and use of helicopters when volunteers hiked through snowstorms to reach victims and often only to reclaim a body from the ravages of mother nature. This book is not only for those interested in search and rescue but may also be of interest to outdoor enthusiasts. From the professional mountain climber to the afternoon stroller, this book may help you stay off the list of victims by exposing you to the errors of others. Farabee covers aircraft accidents, river drownings, and hikers claimed by exposure throughout the book. Many of the incidents in the book are very touching, including the death of a father who froze to death while saving the lives of his two children in a snow shelter and the death of a rescuer who accidentally rappels of the end of his rope while attempting to reach rock climbers in trouble. Not only are the rescues interesting but the book also takes the reader on a short tour of our National Parks from Yosemite to the Great Smoky Mountains. I enjoyed every page.