Dangerous Games: Ice Climbing, Storm Kayaking, and Other Adventures from the Extreme Edge of Sports - Hardcover

A compelling collection of narratives introduces readers to the thrill-ride adrenaline rush of extreme sports, such as diving, caving, aplining, and storm kayaking.

f 1982, a twenty-seven-year-old British alpinist named Alex MacIntyre was killed by rock fall during a descent of the south face of Annapurna." Thus begins this enthralling collection of Andrew Todhunter's tales of risk in the outdoors. From the frozen gullies of the Scottish highlands to the sunless depths of California's longest cave, Atlantic Monthly contributor Todhunter writes about so-called extreme sports from the inside. With the self-effacing gumption of a young George Plimpton or Tim Cahill, Todhunter is not content to interview his subjects from the safety of sea level.

Instead, he climbs, paddles, dives under the ice, crawls through caves, and leaps-with grave reservations-from cliffs, in the company of some of the world's premier outdoor athletes. He does these things for fun, and writes about them in a controlled literary style reminiscent of John McPhee. "The Last Voyage of Steve Sinclair" (as "Gale-Force Kayaking") and "Beneath t