Snowstruck : In the Grip of Avalanches

Every year around the globe, people cross paths with avalanchessome massive, some no deeper than a pizza boxwith deadly results. Avalanche expert Jill Fredston stalks these so-called freaks of nature, forecasting where and when they will strike, deliberately triggering them with explosives, teaching potential victims how to stay alive, and leading rescue efforts when tragedy strikes. InSnowstruck, Fredston draws on decades of personal experience to take "avalanches out of the statistical realm and into the human one" (Skiing Magazine): a skier making what may prove his final decision, a victim buried so tightly that he can't move a finger, rescuers racing both time and weather, forecasters treading the line between reasonable risk and danger. Fredston brings to life the awesome forces of nature that can turn the mountains deadlyand the equally inexoshy;rable forces of human nature that lure us time and again into treacherous terrain.

JILL FREDSTON is the author of Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge, which won a 2002 National Outdoor Book Award. She and her husband, Doug Fesler, are co-directors of the Alaska Mountain Safety Center. They live in the mountains above Anchorage.