The White Death: Tragedy and Heroism in an Avalanche Zone Book

"Natural forces become natural disasters only when they get in the way of human endeavor." So writes author McKay Jenkins in his extraordinary natural history of one of the most treacherous and beautiful of these forces: the avalanche. Drawing on newspaper accounts, snow science, folklore, and interviews with the rare survivors, he traces the path avalanches have carved through the ages. In 213 BC, Hannibal lost more than 18,000 troops and a number of elephants to an avalanche in the French Alps. Austrian forces, recognizing their destructive power, deliberately triggered them to frighten and confound Italian troops during the First World War. In lucid prose, Jenkins interweaves this history with a tragic account of an avalanche that claimed the lives of five young climbers trying to push the limits of their skills and courage in Glacier National Park. Just as Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm recreates the sensation of drowning, The White Death places the reader in the middle of a climber's worst nightmare: being buried alive in a torrent of snow and ice. The 1999 avalanche season broke records across continents, and as long as we keep pushing into the world's wild places, we'll continue to reckon with this unpredictable killer. The White Death merges history with adventure and a love of nature's extremes; it is gripping reading for armchair travelers and seasoned mountaineers alike.

About the Author:

McKay Jenkins is a staff writer for the Atlanta Constitution and teaches writing at the University of Delaware. He is the editor of The Peter Matthiessen Reader (Vintage). He lives in Philadelphia.