No comments about The Field Guide to Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii (Field Guide).

5 comments about In the Zone: Epic Survival Stories from the Mountaineering World.

1. When I was in college, one of my dear friends became paralyzed after a mountain climbing accident. It was a shocking experience because I was very unfamiliar with the sport at the time. I suppose my friend's accident spurred my curiosity but I believe that my early interest in the sport was initiated by fear and wonder. I am fascinated by the mountains that attract those individuals who feel compelled to conquer them. The entire sport enthralls and repells me. I seek to understand it but abhor the senseless loss when something goes wrong and claims the lives of these magnificent men and women, leaving in their wake their loved ones and friends to forever try and rationalize their death.

   While those of you felt this book lacked accountability and content, I lack the experience in mountain climbing to be so critical of the stories projected by the author. I was able to experience through my imagination what it must have felt like to live through these mountaineering challenges. I feel no need to ask too many questions in respect to faults, for I know so very little about the sport. I simply held the stories in my mind, reflected on their enormity and danger, and appreciated the skills of rescuers and the drive of certain people to climb to the highest mountain and breathe the thinest of air.

   For that, I enjoyed this book. Quite simply, I appreciated reading the stories with my feet planted firmly on my floor.




2. When I was in college, one of my dear friends became paralyzed after a mountain climbing accident. It was a shocking experience because I was very unfamiliar with the sport at the time. I suppose my friend's accident spurred my curiosity but I believe that my early interest in the sport was initiated by fear and wonder. I am fascinated by the mountains that attract those individuals who feel compelled to conquer them. The entire sport enthralls and repells me. I seek to understand it but abhor the senseless loss when something goes wrong and claims the lives of these magnificent men and women, leaving in their wake their loved ones and friends to forever try and rationalize their death.

   While those of you felt this book lacked accountability and content, I lack the experience in mountain climbing to be so critical of the stories projected by the author. I was able to experience through my imagination what it must have felt like to live through these mountaineering challenges. I feel no need to ask too many questions in respect to faults, for I know so very little about the sport. I simply held the stories in my mind, reflected on their enormity and danger, and appreciated the skills of rescuers and the drive of certain people to climb to the highest mountain and breathe the thinest of air.

   For that, I enjoyed this book. Quite simply, I appreciated reading the stories with my feet planted firmly on my floor.




3. The first story, that of Colby Coombs on Alaska's Mount Foraker, is the most intense of the three. An avalanch swept Coombs and his two partners off the side of the mountain, incredibly he survived and, dispite injuries and lost equipment, managed to walk out under his own power. Motivated not simply by a desire to live but by the knowledge that if he died too his dead partners' friends and families would never know what had happened to them. Bullheaded persistance in the face of physical pain worked for Scott Fischer on K2 but on Everest in '96 the same trait caused his death. As for Mr. Potterfield's own story, I personally think it's quite reasonable for him to focus on the rescue rather than the cause of the accident. A mistake was made certainly but what's the point in placing blame? Far more important - and more interesting - is the skill and effort that went into rescuing him. I can't say I noticed any problems with his writing style either.



4. In The Zone contains three unrelated stories (chapters) of climbing. Potterield ostensibly presents three stories of how wrong things can go on the mountains. The Introduction to the book is a rehash of a mountain mishap as well. The first two chapters tell stories of climbs in which Potterfield was not involved. The third chapter is a first hand account followed by retrospective explanation of the surrounding events. Potterfield missed the mark with the story of climbing K2, since it lacked focus and a single pivotal moment in which something went wrong, as compared to the other two stories. Peter Potterfield sells himself as a magazine editor and writer. He would have done well to limit each of these stories to the length of a short magazine article. The repetitive explanations and re-wording of events within each story tried my patience. Throughout the book Potterfield plays the dramatic angle, despite the fact that two of the stories are told from interviews with other climbers and he was therefore in no position to comment on the detailed emotional state of the participants. One serious gripe I have with this book is that I question the validity of details in story number one, the Alaskan struggle of a climber whose two partners were killed in an avalanche. I was struck by what I would call embelishments masquerading as detail. I do not provide quotes from the book, but throughout the discussion of the injured climber's descent, Potterfield includes descriptions that ring false. He might just as easily have included statements like; "thirty feet left on an iced-over bulge of greenish rock with thin pink veins running through it", or "20 feet up to a 10-inch tall rock that resembled the face of norwegien garden gnome" or "15 feet around a bulge before continuing across a 12 yard wide snowfield covered in a 2 inch crust of off-color snow". Potterfield presents clearly imaginary details, presumably gleaned from an interview with the climber weeks, months, or perhaps years after the events took place. Certainly the overall description of events is correct, but get real, I can't remember such details about a climb under normal circumstances. These ersatz details supposedly describe the first hand account of a badly injured climber descending a huge and complicated mountain face. No doubt this climber suffered and I feel for the families of the lost climbers, but letting Potterfield butcher the story this way really sapped my interest and made me wish I had been able to get the story from someone who I did not regard as a flake. As to the rest of the book, Potterfield's description of a season on K2 has been described in much greater detail elsewhere and by people who were in a better position to comment on events. This story does not merit publication on its own, much less inclusion in this book. The final story of Potterfield's own fall and subsequent rescue on Chimney Rock should have been assigned a page limit of perhaps 10 pages. I found the story somewhat enjoyable until Potterfield doubled or tripled the story length with re-examination of events and a complete re-writing of the story from various other people's perspectives. It appears that Potterfield spent a great deal of time interviewing all sorts of people involved in the rescue effort. I suspect that this process must have taken a year or perhaps more and I can only imagine the dread that I would feel if I had been one of the rescuers to have this guy hounding me for my side of the story. In the end Potterfield does not describe or analyse the fundamental question, "what happened at the belay"? He never again mentions his buddy who, it seems , dropped him. Another annoying tendancy of Potterfield throughout the book, and particularly in this story is his use of manufacturer's names to describe pieces of equipment. This was particularly annoying in this case, where he descibes his buddy as using a new belay device called aTuber. Is he insinuating that the Tuber was faulty or improperly used and hence this led to his fall? Potterfield does a diservice to all climbers by not addressing this issue. In The Zone, by Peter Potterfield is poorly written and readers are advised to better spend their time reading a host of other books about mountain tragedies and skip this one.



5. I was drawn into the world of mountaineering after I read "Into Thin Air", and have since become quite the armchair mountain climber. I found this book to be fascinating and an easy, quick read (ie. good on a plane or on the beach). After reading this I was encouraged to go on and read more in depth stories about some of these events that Potterfield describes. I highly recommend this book!

2 comments about Alaska's Southeast, 9th: Touring the Inside Passage.

1. A treasure trove. I leave on the ferries tomorrow and the book will be in my pocket the whole way. A thorough guide.



2. I actually read the Amazon review before I bought Alaska's Southeast. Now I know Touring the Inside Passage should be required reading for your journey to Alaska's Southeast. Read Sarah Eppenbach's book before you go and then take it with you. You'll get the most from those expensive excursions and you'll know where you are every beautiful mile!

No comments about Cruising Alaska 1997: A Passenger's Guide to Cruising Alaskan Waters and Discovering the Interior (Cruising Alaska).

No comments about The Official Guide to the Klondyke Country And the Gold Fields of Alaska.

4 comments about Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey (Traveler).

1. A useful and crisp description of Alaska by an inveterate traveler. Scott has a good grasp of the art of writing clear and readable prose. A good view of the Idiatrod race and a cursory history of Alaska as well.



2. A great read for anyone who romanticizes the great white north, or at least wants to know what its like. I was captivate by the crisp clear prose and was swept up in the adventure.



3. If you've dreamt of leaving your job, car payments and cell phone for a pack of Alaskan Huskies and wide open tundra, you'll love this story. Keep in mind, it is not a book about running the Iditarod, but rather following the Iditarod trail. Excellent read and a must have for any dogsledding fanatic.



4. Being owned by a couple of sled dogs myself and utterly familiar with their character(s), I was able to fully empathize with the author. This book is very well written, and I admired the author's candor when describing the rookie mistakes he made in the beginning of his adventure. Training sled dogs is a tough job in itself, now try doing it in a very harsh, demanding environment without all the comforts of (most people's) home.
   But the book not only focuses on the dogs, it also paints a very colorful picture of the people who live in Alaska's towns and in the wilderness. Hats off to those individuals who make it in an environment that can turn from stunningly picturesque to life-threatening within an instant!
   
   If you love adventure travel books, and happen to like dogs, too, this is the book for you.

1 comments about Scenic Driving Alaska and the Yukon, 2nd (Scenic Driving Series).

1. It's pretty hard to read about every detail of a road, but if you need that information it is here. The book is entirely in black and white which was disappointing. I got much more out of The Milepost which is publised every year and is always up to date.

No comments about Katmai Country (Alaska Geographic).

2 comments about Changing Tracks: Predators and Politics in Mt. McKinley National Park.

1. Alaska residents and students of national parks issues will find Changing Tracks involving: it details the events which shaped both Mt. McKinley Park and the national policy on dealing with predators in national parks in general, outlining the decisions and actions which have influenced park service policies throughout the country. A variety of experiences, from game managers to conservationists, are presented in this scholarly, involving survey.



2. Tim Rawson has written an engaging and beautifully researched book exploring the saga of wolf control in Denali National Park. He also documents this controversial issue outside that park, both in Alaska and throughout the country. It is an unthinking oversight, however, that the publisher neglected--either in the subtitle or in the Library of congress catalog info--to mention the fascinating character who resides in these pages: Adolph Murie. This lesser known brother of Olaus Murie was largely responsible for our modern day understanding that wolves are an essential part of the ecosystem. Pre Adolph Murie it was popular to think of wolves as vermin in need of extermination. Adolph's life work, as it unfolds in Rawson's pages, turns this scholarly history into compelling biography. Even if you haven't read Barry Lopez' OF WOLVES AND MEN (or if you have any interest in wolves in general), CHANGING TRACKS is a true classic.

1 comments about Rabbi's Northern Adventure: From the Heights of Alaska to the Golan Heights.

1. Reading the memoirs of Rabbi Yisroel Haber is a most exciting and rewarding experience. Formerly serving as a chaplain in the United States Air Force, Rabbi Haber now devotedly serves as a shaliach (emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe) in the Golan Heights. From his childhood in Crown Heights to the profound influence of his Uncle Meir Moshe to his three years in Alaska as a chaplain to his early developing relationship and later shlichus of the Rebbe, Rabbi Haber captivates his readers, not without a great deal of humor and grace.
   
   Fundamental Torah principles such as mesiras nefesh (self sacrifice for Judaism), bitachon (trust in G-d), emunas chachamim (trust in Torah leaders), kiruv rechokim (Jewish outreach), hashgacha pratis (Divine providence), ahavas Yisroel and ahavas briyos (love for the Jewish people and humanity) all vividly come alive through the holy work of Rabbi Haber and his wife.
   
   A work of beauty, A Rabbi's Northern Adventure also contains numerous photographs, a letter to the author from President Gerald R. Ford, and at least a dozen letters to the author from the Rebbe. Enjoy this book!