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Chapters: Fires in Austria, Natural Disasters in Austria, Kaprun Disaster, 1590 Neulengbach Earthquake, Galtür Avalanche, Hofburg Fire, Winter of Terror, 1954 Blons Avalanches. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 26. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Kaprun disaster was a fire that occurred in an ascending railway car in the tunnel of the Gletscherbahn 2 railway in Kaprun, Austria, on 11 November 2000. The disaster claimed the lives of 155 people, leaving 12 survivors (10 Germans, 2 Austrians) from the burning car. The victims were skiers on their way to the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier. The train, the Gletscherbahn 2, was a funicular railway running from Kaprun to the Kitzsteinhorn, opened in 1974. This railway had the unusual track gauge of 946 millimeters, and a length of 3900 meters, of which 3300 meters was through a tunnel. There were two carriages on a single track, with a section allowing the trains to pass each other halfway. One train would carry passengers up the mountain while the other train simultaneously descended the mountain. The carriages each had a maximum capacity of 180 passengers. The tunnel terminated at the main reception centre, called the Alpine Centre. The unit had its fire extinguishers out of the passengers' reach in the sealed attendant compartments. No smoke detectors existed on board. The passengers had no method of contacting the attendant. Professor Joseph Nejez, a funicular train expert, said that the designers throughout the years had a perception that a fire could not occur since no fire occurred in a funicular cabin prior to the Kaprun disaster. The train complied with area safety codes, which did not address the systems installed on the train during its 1993 upgrade. The onboard electric power, hydraulic systems, and fan heaters intended for use in h...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=149105 ... Read more

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Chapters: Natural Disasters in Pakistan, 2008 K2 Disaster, Ojhri Camp, 2010 Kohistan Avalanche, List of Natural Disasters in Pakistan. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:K2 in summerThe 2008 K2 Disaster occurred on August 2, 2008, when eleven mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. It was the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering. K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth after Mount Everest. With a peak elevation of 8,611 metres (28,251 ft), K2 is part of the Karakoram range, not far from the Himalayas, and is located on the border between the Pakistani-controlled territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, in the disputed Kashmir region, and the People's Republic of China's Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging to conquer than Everest, and is generally looked upon as one of the most dangerous mountains in the world. The climbing season at K2 lasts from June to August, but in 2008 adverse weather prevented any groups from summiting during June and July. At the end of July, ten different groups were awaiting the possibility to reach the summit, some of them having waited for almost two months. The months preceding the summit push were used for acclimatization and preparing for the camps higher on the mountain, the highest of them, Camp IV, just a little short of 8000 m above sea level. With the end of July approaching, weather forecasts indicated improving weather, and several groups had arrived at Camp IV on July 31 in preparation to try the summit as soon as weather would permit. The Sherpas and Pakistani high-altitude porters (HAPs) started to prepare fixed lines ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=18692169 ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Mieczysław Karłowicz, 2008 K2 Disaster, Ger Mcdonnell, Vilém Heckel, Buddy Werner, Rolf Bae, Christopher Allport, Barbara Henneberger, Michel Trudeau. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt:K2 in summerThe 2008 K2 Disaster occurred on August 2, 2008, when eleven mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. It was the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering. K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth after Mount Everest. With a peak elevation of 8,611 metres (28,251 ft), K2 is part of the Karakoram range, not far from the Himalayas, and is located on the border between the Pakistani-controlled territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, in the disputed Kashmir region, and the People's Republic of China's Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging to conquer than Everest, and is generally looked upon as one of the most dangerous mountains in the world. The climbing season at K2 lasts from June to August, but in 2008 adverse weather prevented any groups from summiting during June and July. At the end of July, ten different groups were awaiting the possibility to reach the summit, some of them having waited for almost two months. The months preceding the summit push were used for acclimatization and preparing for the camps higher on the mountain, the highest of them, Camp IV, just a little short of 8000 m above sea level. With the end of July approaching, weather forecasts indicated improving weather, and several groups had arrived at Camp IV on July 31 in preparation to try the summit as soon as weather would permit. The Sherpas and Pakistani high-altitude porters (HAPs) started to prepar...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=18692169 ... Read more

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Chapters: Fires in Afghanistan, Natural Disasters in Afghanistan, Transport Disasters in Afghanistan, 2010 Salang Avalanches, Salang Tunnel Fire, 2009 Afghan Avalanches. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 17. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The 2010 Salang avalanches consist of a series of at least 36 avalanches that struck the southern approach to the Salang tunnel north of Kabul, Afghanistan on February 8 and 9 in 2010, burying over two miles of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 of travellers. They were caused by a freak storm in the Hindukush mountains located in Afghanistan. Mountain passes of AfghanistanHeavy wind and rain in the area just before the incident caused up to 17 avalanches that buried at least 2 miles of roadway in the Salang Tunnel trapping thousands of people in their vehicles who were travelling in the tunnel, and cutting off one of the major travel links to Northern Afghanistan. Official reports soon after the avalanche report up to 64 people were feared dead and that more could die. Afghanistan's interior minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar believe there could be at least 2,500 people trapped in their vehicles. Many vehicles were pushed down the mountains and hundreds of cars were buried in snow. Among the survivors many injuries were reported. The avalanches were caused by a sudden blizzard that struck the area, closing the tunnel and the roads around it on both side of the tunnel. The tunnel was reopened on February 12, 2010. Annually about 250 avalanches strike the road, and the total loss of life during the 2008/9 season was about 40 people. The Afghan National Army was forming the main backbone of the recovery effort with at least 500 troops sent to the area as well as 2 helicopters and several bulldozers, however NATO International Se...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=26150427 ... Read more

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The present mortality as a result of snow avalanches exceeds the average mortality caused by earthquakes as well as all other forms of slope failure combined. Snow avalanches can range from small amounts of loose snow moving rapidly down a slope to slab avalanches, in which large chunks of snow break off and destroy everything in their path. Although considered a hazard in the United States since the westward expansion in the nineteenth century, in modern times, snow avalanches are an increasing concern in recreational mountainous areas. However, programs for snow avalanche hazard mitigation in other countries are far ahead of those in the United States. The book identifies several steps that should be taken by the United States in order to establish guidelines for research, technology transfer, and avalanche legislation and zoning. ... Read more

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One of the most amazing survival stories ever told -- journalist Jennifer Woodlief's gripping account of the deadliest ski-area avalanche in North American history and the woman who survived in the face of incalculable odds.

On the morning of March 31, 1982, the snow had already been falling at a record rate for four days at Alpine Meadows ski resort near Lake Tahoe, California. For the vacationers and employees at the resort, this day would change their lives forever.

The unprecedented avalanche that day at Alpine Meadows was a once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe. Much like the nor'easter that bedeviled the fishermen in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, an unforeseeable confluence of natural events created the conditions for an unimaginable disaster -- and, in one woman's case, an astonishing ordeal of survival.

Jennifer Woodlief movingly tells the story of the massive slab avalanche that killed seven and left one victim buried alive under the snow. In this freak event, millions of tons of snow roared into the ski area and beyond, engulfing unsuspecting vacationers as well as resort employees working in spite of the danger.

At the center of this wrenching tale of nature's fury are ski patrolman Larry Heywood and his team, who heroically fought with the help of a search-and-rescue dog to save a twenty-two-year-old woman trapped for five days underneath the suffocating snow -- a tale of survival that is itself an exploration of the capacity of courage.

Written with all the suspense of a thriller, A Wall of White is an inspiring story of a group of strangers brought together by an inconceivable calamity -- a testament to the unwavering dedication of a band of rebel rescuers, driven only by a commitment to saving lives, battling not just extreme conditions but seemingly impossible odds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

No escape
Like watching heavy snow fall, "A Wall of White" by Jennifer Woodlief inexorably builds, flake by flake and sentence by sentence, towards the tragedy that unfolded at Alpine Meadows California in 1982 when a catastrophic avalanche obliterated much of the mountain's ski area base. The sense of doom is almost suffocatingly palpable, as Woodlief introduces us to, and makes us care about, the people who would be caught up in that day's events. She also does an exemplary job of explaining snow science and avalanche control to the layman.

Stylistically, Woodlief's book almost feels as if snow is accumulating. You have the urge to run away before it slides, but can't escape what you already know will be disaster. And, as always, you can't help but ponder fate, and the seemingly inconsequential acts that, in review, marked a narrow ridge between life and death.

If I had one difficulty, it was that the (necessarily) large number of individuals involved was somewhat confusing, and ultimately, I couldn't place several of them, including the person whose survival made national headlines - a story that I still recall, well over 25 years later. Part of that may have been my inability to put the book down - I rushed through the pages to see what would happen next.

Bottom line: "A Wall of White" is extremely well-written. How Woodlief untangled complex, chaotic events and wove them into a fascinating, coherent story is a testament to her writing prowess, and a tribute to the unforgettable people involved in this tragedy. Highly recommended!

~Sharon

Advance Review Copy provided courtesy of the publisher.

Too much background
I agree with some of the other reviews that the the pace is too slow.The author spends well over half the book with unnecessarily long descriptions about various people.The snow doesn't start rolling until about two thirds of the way into the book.

Great Read
I finished reading the book "A Wall of White" this past winter and could not believe how Jennifer did such an awesome job on her research and her writing.She captured the true essence of the human spirit when tragedy strikes.The men and women who survived this tragedy worked together with so few resources and showed how they would not allow their fellow co-workers and fellow friends to just be left for dead.They worked until they found the last remaining one and did not give up.

I am a ski patroller back in the southeast and it was uncomprehensible how these rescuers did what they did with so little resources.My hats off to all that participated in the rescue and recovery of all.

The book was well written with its history of how an avalanche is formed and then the history of each individual that perished that day.Without this knowledge and information, the book would have been just another read.But it allowed the reader to get to know those who perished.

Thanks to Jennifer for getting this book right.

A little inconsistent
Please note, this review refers to an ARC of "A Wall of White."

This book tells the story of the devastating Alpine Meadows avalanche in March 1982. "A Wall of White" is written in a very similar style, a journalistic style, to "Into Thin Air" which covered the Everest disaster in 1996. In this reader's opinion, it started off a little slow and I believe that some of the first 10 chapters can easily be reduced in size or eliminated entirely since it acted as a setup for the parts to follow. The second half of the book, which focused on the avalanche and the rescue attempts, was a much faster pace and was quite pleasant to read.

However, while I enjoyed reading "A Wall of White," I did find the sheer amount of names, who they are, and how they were related to the situation to be a little confusing at the beginning and, at one point, I was considering whether to take a piece of paper and write this information down. That made it a little difficult to follow.

If you are considering reading this book, you may also be interested in books such as "Into Thin Air."

Much longer than necessary
The folks at Reader's Digest who condense books should really take a whack at "A Wall of White" - this book is at least twice as long as it should be. There's actually a good story in there, but it's buried underneath a lot of unnecessary material.

Author Jennife Woodlief clogs up the first half of the book with detailed biographies on a dozen or more people connected to the deadly 1982 avalanche at Alpine Meadows in California. Not only are these bios too long and too many, they're out of context: We have no clue to why they're important to the avalanche story, since that doesn't begin until the second half of the book. Woodlief also goes on excessively about ski area avalanche control techniques - even though they played no part in this particular avalanche.

So do yourself a favor: Skip the first 10, maybe even 11, chapters of this book. Really. You'll miss very little, and you'll get into the meat of the story far more quickly.

The second half of the book describes the avalanche and the subsequent attempts to rescue those buried in the snow. It's an engaging and sometimes heartbreaking story.

One last gripe: This book, like similar ones, has a batch of pictures in the middle. If you look at those pictures - and what reader wouldn't? - it will spoil the ending of the book. Why can't publishers insert pictures at the appropriate place in the narrative?
... Read more

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Chapters: Deaths by Lightning, Deaths in Avalanches, Deaths in Earthquakes, Deaths in Floods, Deaths in Landslides, Deaths in Tropical Cyclones, Deaths in Tsunamis, Deaths in Volcanic Eruptions, Peter Minuit, Pliny the Elder, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Harry Randall Truman, Casualties of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, Anatol E. Baconsky, George Alan Vasey, 2008 K2 Disaster, James Otis, Jr., Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham, Protima Bedi, Ger Mcdonnell, Kate Fleming, William Lewis Herndon, Trần Triệu Quân, Geremi González, James Morrison, Vilém Heckel, Buddy Werner, John White, Hernán Gaviria, Katia and Maurice Krafft, Lugaid Mac Lóegairi, Tony Chua, Auguste Bravard, Omayra Sánchez, David A. Johnston, Rolf Bae, Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Thomas Reynolds, Sujeewa Kamalasuriya, Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet, Christopher Allport, List of Volcanic Eruptions by Death Toll, Rodrigo González, Bhumi Jensen, Troy Broadbridge, Becky Godwin, Barry Cowsill, Maurice of the Palatinate-Simmern, Toma Caragiu, Mangrai the Great, Mieszko Talarczyk, Reid Blackburn, Barbara Henneberger, Ilie Pintilie, Leontius Pilatus, Sigurd Køhn, Roy Evans, Harry Glicken, Samuel B. Avis, Markus Sandlund, Fernando Bengoechea, Kristina Fröjmark, Aki Sirkesalo, Caesius Bassus, Michel Trudeau, Apollodorus, Robert Whymant, Corneliu M. Popescu, List of Volcanic Eruption Deaths. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 258. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake include both civilian and government officials, locals and foreigners however the overwhelming majority of those killed and wounded in the quake were Haitian civilians. A number of public figures died in the earthquake, including government officials, clergy members, musicians, together with foreign civilian and military person...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=25810999 ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (17)

Fabulous, educational, interesting read!
I read this book after taking my Avalanche Level I class and reading Fredston & Fesler's Avalanche Field Guide (a must!!) and completely loved it. Fredston does a great job of explaining snowpack and bringing it to life with stories of her time in the field. Whether you have minimal avalanche knowledge or are an avy geek, this book is a fabulously written blend of snow science, a study in human behavior, and anecdotes to bring it all to life.

Snowstruck
One of the most intersting books I've read in a while.Up there with "Born to Run."I felt like I was taking a science course under the humanities department.

Freeranging like Alaska
What I love about this book is it's absolute independence from any formula of genre.It's part memoir, part documentary, part journalism, and some other bits and pieces of this and that.Perhaps living in Alaska one has less concern for what others typically do when they write.
The book is built on two main lines, like the two cords of a rapel if you will.First there is the description of the various man-meets-avalanche moments that create most of the books episodes, and the theme here is something like the tendency that humans have to underestimate the forces of nature and their complete disregard for human existence.Then there is the autobiography of the author and her husband, shaped by taking part in the man-avalanche conflict.The two threads are twisted around eachother to make up the book.
If there's a moral to the story it would be that folks who play in nature need to think themselves out of the mindset that catastrophe generally results from big chances and big mistakes.

Science Made Exciting
I am a disaster afficionado--have been since I can remember. Books, movies, documentaries--if something on the planet erupted, shook, blew, flooded or flamed, I'm interested.
Maybe it's the awesome power of Mother Nature that attracts me. She is one tough chick you just don't mess with--and I want to be her.
Anyway, for a disaster buff like myself, a book sporting a title with the word "avalanche" in it has to get my attention. And Jill Fredston's "Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches" not only grabbed my attention, it held me by the throat to the very end.
Fredston has an impressive resume: She has spent the last 25 years studying avalanches and has worked in education, prevention, rescue and recovery. She is co-director of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center and co-author of "Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard." Her partner in both endeavors is Doug Fesler, who also happens to be her husband. But more important than her credentials is her awe of and respect for the forces she studies.
She tells the reader of her arrival in Alaska in 1982, proud possessor of a masters degree in polar studies and ice. Landing a job as a snow and ice specialist for the University of Alaska, she become known for her expertise in "anything frozen."
When the university inherited the Alaska Avalanche Forecast Center, Fredston was appointed director, even though she knew nothing about the subject. That's when she met Fesler, who at that time was Alaska's "reigning avalanche authority" and who had recommended against her hire.
But Fredston, "blithely unaware that he thought me as green as they come," eagerly learned from him, following him out into the field, studying snow whenever she had the chance--and face it, in Alaska, there's about six months out of the year, at least, to study snow--and learned "to read the history of a single winter's weather in a snow pit wall," as Fesler advised her.
Eventually, the two fell in love and started a domestic partnership, combining it with business when both lost their jobs with the state during the budget crisis of the late 1980s.
Fredston has an easy, charming style, a way of mixing science, anecdote, narrative and history into a coherent and inherently readable book. Vivid description and imagery, a thorough knowledge of her subject matter and a love of all that it encompasses add passion and depth to what could have been a dry treatise on why snow falls.
Listen to this: "Snow voices complain in a variety of ways," in describing the sounds an avalanche makes. It almost never sounds--or looks, as she points out in a later chapters--like movie avalanches do.
"My thoughts always seemed folded in among the layers of the snowpack."
"The thin line that tethers us to life is invisible, far from straight, and famously fickle. It is a line we are walking yet are only allowed to stray across once."
Powerful words. Powerful images. Powerful message.
In fact, I got so caught up in the story I kept forgetting I was supposed to be reviewing, not enjoying. I had to keep going back and re-reading to make sure I wasn't liking it for no reason. You know, being a disaster buff and all.
Tough job I have.
To be sure, the book's not perfect. The first chapter begins with the January 2000 avalanche in Cordova, getting into the head of one of the victims--and then she veers off onto Doug Fesler, who at the time is a stranger to the reader and not even close to Cordova. There's a lot of meandering and sidetracking through this chapter, giving the reader back story and some historic and scientific facts about avalanches. All very interesting, but ... she gets us caring about the people in Cordova, so breaking away and going on another trail is disconcerting.
And, with her citing of other sources, books on risk management and survival, as well as quotes from an incredible range of writers from Maya Angelou to Henry Thoreau, a list of works cited or read would have been fantastic. It would have saved me from having to rifle through pages trying to find identifying information.
Not that I'm complaining. Because she goes back to Cordova at the end, coming full circle back to where she started, leaving the reader with a sense of closure. And a wish that the book was longer.
If Fredston (and Fesler, for as she says, "without him, there would be no story," and he is on every page with her) has a mantra, it's "Educate people. Educate people. Educate." Because far from advising people to stay inside and avoid snow all together, Fredston knows that's not going to happen. And she knows, as statistics she quotes show, that 95 percent of avalanches that kill are triggered by the victims (page 126) and that experts are more likely to be killed than amateurs (page 151).
Complacency, overconfidence--these are factors in those stats, Fredston says, but most avalanches can be avoided by reading the snow pack, knowing the history and the science enough to judge when danger is imminent (a red light, she calls it).
Rather than blaming the victims, Fredston feels great sympathy and pain for every frozen, battered not-breathing body she and Fesler have dug out of the snow.
"... of course greater exposure increases the probability of becoming a statistic. The problem is that behind every statistic is an individual with a name and a circle of friends and relatives left with holes in their hearts."
This grief has gotten to both Fredston and Fesler; Fredston quotes Soren Kierkegaard: "How did I get into this and this and how do I get out of it again, how does it end?"
Bottom line: I loved this book. I could read it again and learn more, even though I took prodigious notes and underlined pages of words and facts. It is compelling because the author describes a world in which man is not the center of the universe nor is he at the top of the food chain. Far from being masters of our universe, we are subject to the rhythms and patterns of those around us, the animals and plants which share the world with us, and the forces of nature that shape it. It's a humbling thought, but a conclusion I reached long ago (about the time I realized that gravity always wins).
I found a quote years ago that sums up my philosophy of my place on this rock, and was quite surprised--but maybe I shouldn't have been--to find it near the end of Fredston's book: "Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice," according to historian Will Durant.
This is not a land where we ever want to forget that.

Showing nature's power to destroy
Of all the natural disasters we've seen, like fire, flood, and earthquake, one important one is often left out: avalanche--those sudden-death slides in snowy mountain country.

Jill Fredston takes care of that in her latest book Snowstruck. Beginning with an avalanche in 2005 that wiped out half the town of Cordova, Alaska, she tells the story of her lifelong fascination with the cold country, her 20 years of research into the subject, and her own marriage to Alaskan avalanche expert Doug Fesler. Together, they travel across Alaska, trying to find out how these sudden killer slides begin, when and where they are most likely to strike. The couple teaches classes to skiers, snowmobilers and others venturing into high country, trying to train them to watch for warning signs of an avalanche.

And yet...and yet...

You will feel Jill's frustration and sorrow as they see these very same students and even close friends go out again and again under dangerous conditions--and pay for it with their lives. Even cities and towns in avalanche country resist a ban on building in likely avalanche paths, and turn a deaf ear to warnings as their citizens construct homes at the very foot of dangerous slopes. You too will want to grit your teeth in the face of such municipal greed.

This is an excellent book not only for skiers and snow sports enthusiasts, but also a harrowing story and a good resource guide for writers and researchers who want to know more about what makes avalanches tick...like time bombs on the slopes above our heads.

Jill Fredston is the author of Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic's Edge, which won the 2002 National Outdoor Book Award for Literature. She and her husband, Doug Fesler, co-direct the Alaska Mountain Safety Center and co-wrote the authoritative Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard. They live in the mountains above Anchorage.

Armchair Interviews says: Overall, this is an easy-to-read book about the causes and catastrophes of an unacknowledged natural killer. ... Read more

Product Description
Avalanches seldom touch man or his works, but when they do they can be disastrous. This illustrated handbook sets forth procedures for avoiding such disasters in ski areas, near roads and settlements, and in the back country.

New snowfall and old snow redeposited by winds are the major causes of avalanches. Melting and freezing or the presents or absents of a temperature gradient in the snow are difficult to observe directly but can make the snowpack either more or less susceptible to avalanching. Such variations often can be identified by digging pits in the snow.

When a snow slop fails, the impact of the avalanche depends on such variables as the length, shape, and roughness of the avalanche path. If disaster strikes buried victims must be rescued quickly, since the chance of survival decreases sharply with time.

Methods of avalanche control include artificial release by explosives, defense structures, public warnings, and land-use legislation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A poor reproduction of the original printing.
I sought to replace a previous copy that was purchased in 1981 from the original printer. This reproduction is poor at best. It seems that the photos and text were photo-copied: photos are grainy and washed; and the text print is not very easy on the eyes. I ended up returning the order for a refund. ... Read more

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This book celebrates the pleasures of the alpine-style approach in climbing the 6000, 7000 and 8000 metre peaks of the Himalaya and the Karakoram. It highlights 40 of the world''s best climbs, a mixture of modern test pieces, and older classic routes.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Informative and readable book on Avalanches
Avalanche expert Norm Wilson recommended this book to me and I'm glad he did. I find it very informative, but without putting me to sleep like "The Avalanche Handbook" does. It has lots of illustrations and practical information. I backcountry ski and recommend it to others who travel the backcountry in winter. ... Read more

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A DRM free eBook.

I hope you carry your Kindle with you where ever you go. Then when ever you find yourself in a waiting room at he hospital or Department of Motor Vehicles your time is not wasted. You simply pull your Kindle out of your purse or pocket and read from your library of books.

This is one book that I hope you never have toread. It includes over forty chapters of life saving survival information for those stranded in the mountains or desert. It includes information about where to find food or water. It tells you how to start a fire, build a shelter, treat an injury.

This is one book that should be on every Kindle. But it is also one book that I hope you never have to read. It is for those who are in an earthquake, flood, fire, kidnapped, raped, lost or stranded. This book has survival tips that could save your life or the life of one of your family members. ... Read more

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Chapters: 1590 Neulengbach Earthquake, Galtür Avalanche, Winter of Terror, 1954 Blons Avalanches. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 20. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Neulengbach earthquake of 1590 occurred on September 15, 1590 shortly before midnight amidst a long series of much weaker seismic activity starting on June 29, 1590 and with aftershocks reported until November 12. It was the strongest historically documented earthquake in what today is Northeastern Austria. The epicenter is believed to have been located southeast of Neulengbach, about 3040 km west of Vienna, in a flat dipping and North-South striking thrust fault that is part of the Vienna Transform fault zone. This moderately active fault system extends over a distance of some 300 km from the Northern Limestone Alps through the Vienna Basin into the West Carpathian Mountains. The temblor's energy release is estimated at 5.5-6.0 on the Richter magnitude scale and it had class VII intensity on the modified Mercalli intensity scale in most of Lower Austria. The city tower of Zbkowice lskie, damaged by the 1590 Neulengbach earthquakeSignificant destruction occurred in Vienna, which at this time had about 50,000 inhabitants living within a fortified and densely urban area that covered what today is the innermost city center. The upper half of St. Michael's church tower collapsed in spite of its steel reinforcements, the Scottish Abbey was severely damaged, and the Southern tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral suffered as well. At this time it was not customary to document damage to property that did not serve sacral purposes or was directly used by the aristocracy, and very little information has survived concerning the destruction and harm inflicted on ordinary citizens. Therefore, the fact that the death of nine peop...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=22976112 ... Read more

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What is an avalanche? Who helps people affected by avalanches? How can people prepare for avalanches? This book describes the causes and effects of avalanches, case studies of past avalanches, and how they can be predicted or prevented in the future.

... Read more

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Chapters: Bobsled Roller Coaster, Disaster Transport, Alpine Bobsled, Flying Turns, Bob Track, Avalanche. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: A Bobsled roller coaster is the generic name given to any roller coaster that uses a track design that is essentially a "pipe" with the top half removed and has cars that are sent down this pipe in a freewheeling mode. The name derives from the great similarity to the track design used for the Bobsleigh winter sport. Most modern bobsled roller coasters are made of steel, however the first bobsled coasters, known as Flying Turns were made of wood. As of 2007, there are no Flying Turns coasters in operation, however Knoebels in Pennsylvania is planning on opening the world's first modern flying turns coaster, Flying Turns. The ride was scheduled to open in 2007, but has been delayed due to dysfunctional wheels. Both the Bobsled Coaster and the Flying Turns coaster are both buildable coasters in the Rollercoaster Tycoon series of Video Games. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5395573 ... Read more