Product Description

The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters

In July 1967, seven young men—members of Joe Wilcox's twelve-man expedition—died on Mt. McKinley, North America's highest peak.

Ten days passed with no rescue attempt, while more than half an expedition was stranded and dying at 20,000 feet during a vicious Arctic storm. The bodies were never recovered. And, for reasons that have remained cloudy, there was no proper official investigation of the catastrophe.

This book begins as a classic tale of men against nature, gambling—and losing—on one of the world's starkest and stormiest peaks. Reckoning by lives lost, it was history's third-worst mountaineering disaster when it occurred—but elements of finger pointing, incompetence, and cover-up make this disaster unlike any other. James M. Tabor draws on previously untapped sources: personal interviews with survivors and those involved in the aftermath, unpublished diaries and letters, and government documents. He consults not only mountaineers but also experts in disciplines including meteorology, forensics, and psychology. What results is the first full account of the tragedy that ended a golden age in mountaineering. Maps; 8 pages of illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282888 in Books
• Color: No Color
• Brand: Alpen
• Published on: 2007-07-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Tabor's exhaustive look at the doomed 1967 expedition to scale Alaska's Mt. McKinley is an often gripping, detailed account of the infamous climb that remains controversial. Only five of the 12-man team survived the ascent to the 20,320-foot summit, making it one of the deadliest mountaineering disasters in North America. The journey was fraught with tension from the beginning: the National Park Service (NPS) required a group of nine men, led by Joe Wilcox, to merge with a three-member party of Coloradoans, led by Howard Snyder. Wilcox and Snyder clashed almost immediately. Both men survived and went on to retell the trip in books: Snyder in his 1973 version that mostly blamed Wilcox's leadership; Wilcox's account in 1981 cited an overpowering storm as the culprit in the deaths. Tabor (who hosted PBS's Great Outdoors) shows that the NPS was very slow to react and might have saved the climbers with quicker response. His writing about the brutal difficulties of climbing Mt. McKinley in subfreezing temperatures with hurricane-like wind in blizzard conditions is breathtaking, although he lapses into minutiae and repeats details, particularly regarding the accident's investigation. His profiles of the expedition's survivors 40 years later make for a strong conclusion to the book. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
'I thought I knew the essential story of the Wilcox party disaster, but Jim Tabor's new book has undercut all my preconceptions. A shrewd and penetrating investigation of one of climbing's greatest tragedies, Forever on the Mountain grapples with the most fundamental questions of risk and responsibility.' -- David Roberts, author of On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined

A maddening, terrifying book, and also a deeply compassionate one. -- John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce

Forever on the Mountain, James M. Tabor's tale of the mysterious fate of a group of expert climbers who disappeared on Mount McKinley in 1967, was awarded the 2007 Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize. ""The era of mountaineering Tabor describes -- just a generation ago -- is so different from today's light and fast style, that it's almost impossible to imagine ourselves back there," says Book Festival jury member Dougald MacDonald. "This book helps us understand what it was like." -- GRAND PRIZE, BANFF 2007 MOUNTAIN BOOK & FILM FESTIVAL

He tells a gripping story, and he tells it with authority and with compassion for its victims. -- Clint Willis, author of The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing's Greatest Generation

Lays bare some of the crucial issues facing serious mountain expeditions, then and now: exuberance, incompatability or mutual support, blame, error, or accident, and the relentless nature of the mountain, its weather and its wilderness. James Tabor's resolve and sustained engagement, his determination to uncover the truth, and his lucid and consistent style of writing whilst exploring and including a wide range of source material, make this book, we believe, a touchstone for the future. -- 2007 BOARDMAN TASKER PRIZE, Second Place

So compelling that as the doomed climbers ascend into a white hell, you'll find yourself shivering—and praying—with them. -- David Baron, author of The Beast in the Garden

Tabor's unflinching exhumation...illuminates its grim clash of personalities with clarity and a long overdue objectivity. -- Peter Potterfield, author of In the Zone: Epic Survival Stories from the Mountaineering World

This harrowing tale of the 1967 catastrophe on the slopes of Mt. McKinley will leave you breathless! -- Gay Salisbury, co-author of The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic

This is a comprehensive, necessary and valuable book. (James Perrin, author of The Villain: A Portrait of Don Whillans) -- James Perrin, author of The Villain: A Portrait of Don Whillans

What actually happened and why so many died in one of North America's worst mountaineering disasters is still debated to this day. James Tabor's Forever on the Mountain sheds a new light on the tragedy. In addition to his extensive investigative work, Tabor is an outstanding story teller, and once started, this is a book that is hard to put down. -- 2007 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD

From the Author
Grand Prize Winner, Banff 2007 Mountain Book & Film Festival National Outdoor Book Award Boardman Tasker Prize, Second Place

Customer Reviews

Survivor's Viewpoint
As one of the survivors of the climb described in Forever on the Mountain, I believe the book to be very well researched and well written-- of interest to almost all involved in climbing.

To me there is no great mystery. A vicious storm resulted in the deaths of seven climbers. Delays and bureaucratic bungling in declaring an emergency and in launching an all-out rescue may have frustrated all but changes would not have resulted in saving the seven lives.

One weakness in the book results from the author "imagining" what occurred and by doing so leading readers to think the summit team dug snow caves and survuved for severeal days in those caves. I don't believe that happened.

The book by Howard Snyder, The Hall of the Mountain King, about the same climb is a precise description of the climb although it highlights some biases against the Wilcox faction.

Overall- well done but readers must separate fact from authors guesses as to what happened.

Memories
As a person who had close ties to the expedition, both in the planning and the aftermath, I found this book to be an accurate account of the tragic events that occurred. The book brought back 40 years worth of memories, just like they had happened yesterday.

Preconceived opinions?
While browsing my local bookstore, I saw a book with a title that left no question in my mind about the subject: an event that happened 40 years ago and I could now read about the truth surrounding that tragedy on Mt. McKinley: Forever on the Mountain, by James Tabor. In the summer of 1967 I was full of dreams and anticipation as to what my second season at Mt. McKinley National Park might bring: new adventures, amazing sights, the trill of just the chance to view that magical mountain, Mt. McKinley. At the same time I was living my dreams, another group of young men were about to begin their own adventures and dreams, and attempt to summit the great mountain. As I read on, I realized sometimes in life no matter how well we plan and organize, things happen; attitudes and egos do not mix; politics and bureaucracy diminish the chance for success. In this book, these problems are brought forth and analyzed with a very straight forward approach, giving the public an unbiased solution of what happened and didn't happen in the most tragic disaster in North American climbing history. I thought it was a great read, especially having lived at McKinley during the event, and is important for anyone who has preconceived opinions about what actually took place on the mountain.



Gary Smith