No comments about Rand McNally Easy to Read! Alaska State Map (Rand McNally Easy to Read!).

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.

5 comments about Adventure Guide to the Inside Passage & Coastal Alaska 4th ed.

1. Out of all the travel books I purchased for my Alaska trip this one proved to be the most entertaining and useful. When I recieved this book I expected just another guide book but I couldn't stop reading - the anecdotes and suggestions were as compelling as a good novel. It felt like a nice, long letter from a friend who wanted to be sure I had a great trip. While traveling I found most of their suggestions right on the money. I tried the activities they suggested and was glad I steered clear of their warnings! It turned out to be the only guide book I brought along that I actually used regularly on the trip. One draw back is that there are very few maps of the smaller local areas and the maps that are included do not give you a sense of scale. Also, the title is a bit of a misnomer, I almost did not order this book because I thought "adventure guide" meant it was only for sportspeople,kayakers and campers. But that is far from the truth, this book is great for the independant traveler who wants a leisurely trip, as well as a person who wants something a little more challenging.



2. ... "[offers] a bountiful amount of concise information... goes beyond the usual sights to present lesser-known options. Maps and photos embellish the down-to-earth text." Prodigy Travel Board



3. "The ideal traveling companion, and a wonderful book for the armchair traveler." Midwest Book Review



4. "These useful guides are highly recommended... " Library Journal



5. An exceptional resource. The suggestions for activities were found to be right on target. About.com

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!

No comments about Round the World Voyage of Hieromonk Gideon 1803-1809 (Alaska History).

No comments about Alaska's Magnificent Eagles (Alaska Geographic Ser.; Vol. 24. No. 4) (Alaska Geographic,).

No comments about Climbing Alaska (Alaska Geographic,).

No comments about Khlebnikov Archive: Unpublished Journal (1800-1837) and Travel Notes (1820, 1822, and 1824) (1820, 1822, and 1824).

No comments about Northslope (Alaska Geographic).

No comments about Yukon Territory (Alaska Geographic,).