Mountain Survival

Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown.

Acclaimed writer David Smart illuminates the fascinating life of Royal Robbins—in all its soulful ambition, rivalry, and romance. Royal Robbins chronicles his early years growing up as a latchkey kid in Southern California, the push and pull between being an aspiring banker or one of the original Camp 4 dirtbags, and his later decades as a father, husband, kayaker, and the trailblazing founder of the outdoor apparel company that bears his name.

In the 1970s, a group of astronomers tracking a fragment from the Kohoutek comet obtained authorization to enter a remote region of the Soviet Union. The truth about what happened to that expedition remains hidden among myths and rumors.

After a plane is forced to make an emergency landing in a remote area, the surviving crew and passengers must wait until a rescue team arrives. But they soon discover they are not alone in the wilderness, and the rescue team is not showing up anytime soon.

A masterpiece of compelling narrative history, The White Ladder describes the epic rise of mountaineering's world altitude record, a story of ever higher climbs by figures great and small of mountaineering. Daniel Light describes how climbers used revolutionary techniques to launch themselves into the most forbidding conditions. The expeditions illustrate evolutionary changes in climbing style, the advancement of high-altitude science, and the development of mountain climbing as an industry.

The desire for adventure drove Oli to leave Finland and travel across the ocean to 19th century America. Circumstances left Oli in possession of a map showing the location of Spanish gold in what would become a life or death adventure. Travel with Oli from the wharfs of Boston to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains as he follows the dream of a departed friend.

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.

Deaf and homeless his entire adult life, Butch discovers a wallet in a dumpster. What he does next will lead to a chance encounter with a visitor from Texas. This is a true story of survival by eating out of dumpsters and trying to keep warm with restroom hand dryers. More, it is a story of an unlikely friendship that has lasted over twenty-five years. Share through Butch’s own letters his sustaining faith and hope to be a somebody. You will cry. You will laugh. You will learn.

Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days before he woke to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team to Chile had crashed deep in the Andes, killing many of his teammates, his mother, and his sister. Stranded with the few remaining survivors on a lifeless glacier and thinking constantly of his father’s grief, Parrado resolved that he could not simply wait to die. So Parrado, an ordinary young man with no particular disposition for leadership or heroism, led an expedition up the treacherous slopes of a snowcapped mountain and across forty-five miles of frozen wilderness.

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.

On April 25, 2015, Jim Davidson was climbing Mount Everest when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake released avalanches all around him and his team, destroying their only escape route and trapping them at nearly 20,000 feet. It was the largest earthquake in Nepal in 81 years and killed about 8,900 people. That day also became the deadliest in the history of Everest, with 18 people losing their lives on the mountain.

In August 2017, 32-year-old Jeremy Evans endured multiple ferocious attacks by a protective female grizzly bear while hunting in the Alberta wilderness. Jeremy’s injuries were massive, his scalp and face destroyed, an eye and his jaw dangling down. The tendons on one leg had been fully severed during the mauling. His hands were damaged where he had physically fought the bear. It was more than a dozen kilometres to where he had parked his truck in darkness early that morning and absolutely no one was near.

The bestselling author of No Shortcuts to the Top and K2 chronicles his three attempts to climb the world's tenth-highest and statistically deadliest peak, Annapurna in the Himalaya, while exploring the dramatic and tragic history of others who have made -- or attempted – the ascent, and what these exploits teach us about facing life's greatest challenges.

A prospector leaves family, friends and love behind to satisfy a burning need, risking life and limb on the 1800s frontier in search of gold. After giving up so much, the final reward is just beyond his reach as his most feared enemy now threatens to prevent him from attaining it.

With heart-pounding descriptions of avalanches and treacherous ascents, Barry Blanchard chronicles his transformation from a poor Native American/white kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world. At 13 he learned to rappel when he joined the 1292 Lord Strathcone's Horse Army Cadets. Soon kicked out for insubordination, he was already hooked on climbing and saw alpinism as a way to make his single mother proud and end his family's cycle of poverty.

Jim Donini has been an icon of American climbing for the past fifty years, pushing the boundaries of alpine ascents around the world, and inspiring generations with his achievements. In Survival Is Not Assured, award-winning author Geoff Powter dives into Donini's remarkable life story, exploring his groundbreaking climbs and his tumultuous experiences both on and off the rock.

Emerging from an underground prison was only the beginning to finding freedom. Edith and Benjamin have longed for the fresh air and independence of the Above, but now that they’ve reached it, they discover a world where the women’s rights movement never occurred and the 19th amendment doesn’t exist. Vivian, a conspiracy theorist who has a strong online following, has tried to warn the public of the Elite and the secret underground society buried beneath Cades Cove, part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. Along with her team and a surprising co-leader, she strives ...

Cynthia feels the pressure, as every day reduces the time available to save a small sample of humanity. This time, Nibru will bring an Extinction Event, in less than five years. A breakthrough physics discovery offers a glimpse of an unknown world beyond a portal. She is directing a project that dwarfs the Manhattan Project, in scope and secrecy. The United States will attempt to launch, through an expanded portal, a group of its best and brightest young people into the unknown world. Will the clock reach midnight before Project Bolthole can be completed?

Until the accident, Melanie had only experienced passion with Sam. And then deep grief. But it's been over a year since his death and she's met a man who promises security and safety, just what she thinks she wants. Then, when her usually routine flight home over the Cascade Mountains becomes anything but, and she and Alex, her pilot, are thrown together in a fight for survival, Melanie is no longer sure what she wants. During cold nights in the mountains, she finds warmth and shelter in his arms. But how can Alex ever give her the security she craves outside of them? And there is man, a ...

Virgil is making his older siblings trek to a mountain lake on a trip unlike any they have taken before. They carry precious cargo: the ashes of their beloved mother, who asked that her remains be scattered at her favorite spot. But when a forest fire is sparked by a bolt of lightning at the exact moment when their van breaks down, the journey quickly turns to disaster. Virgil finds himself separated from his sister and alone in the wilderness. He isn’t sure he can make it, but with the memory of his mother and her lessons to guide him, he learns that survival starts with letting go.