White Death: In the Path of an Avalanche - Hardcover

Over 100,000 avalanches fall every year. Moutaineers call them ‘white death’ and every year the death toll rises. Confrontations are sudden and dramatic, the odds of survival remote. White Death is the story of the collision between one such avalanche and 5 young mountaineers on Mount Cleveland, and the desperate efforts to rescue them.

The mystery of the high mountains, the source of their dreadful attraction, is their legendary danger. In C15th mountain travellers were led through the Alps blindfolded because the high places were thought to contain visions that would dirive them mad. Atop the Matterhorn, it was believed, was a ruined city inhabited by the souls of the dead. Dragons were thought to live in the high altitudes. The dragon’s roar expressed itself all too clearly: as an avalanche. White Death is the story of avalaches, told through the tale of one group of mountaineers who climbed high into the northern Rockies of Glacier Park in January 1969. Mount Cleveland is not the highest mountain in the world but it’s one where the dragon roars most frequently and with the greatest ferocity: avalanches 10 or 15 times a day have been recorded. And avalanches have awesome force: one in Alaska contained a million cubic yards of ice and fell 10,000 feet in elevation, travelling up and over a three thousand foot mountain en route and throwing up a plume of ice into the air that was visible from 100 miles away. Five young men and a lot of snow and ice collided fatally on Mount Cleveland. The men vanished. Despite a huge rescue and recovery operation their bodies were not released by the snowfield that entombed them for 188 days.

Early one January morning, five exceptional young climbers set out to conquer the previously unclimbed north face of Mount Cleveland in the Northern Rockies. In view of the severe New Year weather and warnings from local experts, they took with them enough supplies to last for a week. They also carried a revolver, which they planned to bury at the mountain's peak. Seven days later, no word had been received. Their tracks led up the mountain but did not lead down. The revolver was never seen again.

Despite a dangerous and desperate search-and-rescue mission, no trace of the boys was found. They had effectively disappeared. Only 188 days later did the mountain finally yield the terrible secret of the expedition's tragic flaw.

The mystery of high mountains, the source of their dreadful attraction, lies in their legendary danger. In the fifteenth century, mountain travellers were led through the Alps blindfolded because the high places were thought to contain visions that would drive them mad. Atop the Matterhorn, it was believed, was a ruined city inhabited by the souls of the dead. Dragons were thought to live in the high altitudes. The dragon's roar expressed itself all too clearly: as an avalanche.

White Death is the story of avalanches, told through the Mount Cleveland expedition. It is not the highest mountain in the world but it's one where the dragon roars most frequently and with the greatest ferocity: avalanches up to fifteen times a day have been recorded. And avalanches have awesome force: one in Alaska contained 1,000,000 cubic yards of ice and fell 10,000 feet in elevation, travelling up and over a 3000-foot mountain en route and throwing up a plume of ice into the air that was visible from 100 miles away.

A reverie on the appeal of high mountains, an awful warning of their catastrophic destructive power, White Death is a brilliant narrative of avalanches and a homage to the snow dragon.