Comments on: Colorado 14er Disasters — Book Review

By: Louis

Louis — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:07:52 +0000

Overall this book made a worthwhile contribution to the field of safety, and served as another reminder that these mountains can kill you in a countless number of ways. The account of Worthington’s demise is a particularly useful case study in what not to do.

A related lesson might be that Websites such as 14ers.com are somewhat analogous to Wikepedia: i.e. there’s good information, as well as bad information, and you should take the information presented there with a grain of salt.

My one criticism of this book was that the author sometimes had an elitist attitude, roughly speaking, of “I don’t want the unwashed masses coming near my playground.”

By: Rik

Rik — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:24:20 +0000

I’ve lived in Loveland, CO, for 2yrs now and have really enjoyed hiking up mountains. I sometimes feel I’m being overly cautious (a little too much food and water, a space blanket and extra clothes, just to hike up Halletts for example) but this book made me feel better about my efforts. The author (an experienced mountaineer and SAR guy) beats it into your head: Be prepared for the worst.

The individual stories were interesting and I enjoyed the book. However, as an avid reader and at the risk of sounding like a jerk, the book itself wasn’t written particularly well. In short, he needed a better editor.

Regardless, I’d recommend this book to anyone who is considering taking the mountains up as a hobby. Learning from others’ mistakes is a real attention getter.

By: Mark Worley

Mark Worley — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:28:26 +0000

At the danger of being dubbed uber nerd, I have enjoyed learning hard mountain lessons from others’ foibles and disasters for a long time especially from the dry tome published yearly titled Accidents in North American Mountaineering. It’s good reading if you want to learn what not to do in the mountains without having to experience the horrors yourself. This new book is in that vain, and I intend to get a copy soon.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:19:41 +0000

“Colorado 14er Disasters: Victims of the Game” is a pretty awful and sensational title for a book. “Disaster” implies tragedy on a grand scale, e.g. a landslide on the E face of Elbert wiping out the hundreds of hikers streaming up on a summer weekend. And “Game” implies that there is a widespread attitude among climbers that this is not a serious endeavor. I’ve never found that to be true despite the tiny fraction of idiots that tend to stand out from the crowd. Based upon the description in this review, it would seem that the book’s title is not really serving the subject matter well.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:50:08 +0000

Lou, I personally appreciate your approach on the subject. That said, I don’t doubt that this book will cause some uproar from people that were personally connected to some of the victims. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.