Over The Edge: Death in Grand Canyon, Newly Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition
Thomas M. Myers and Michael P. Ghiglieri
Over the Edge is very well written and easy to read. It has taken a grisly subject and turned it into a practical reference for those planning their trips to the Canyon, with even a touch of humor and hope to lighten the mood. Updated often, every known death from the 1800s up to the present is included in the volume. It’s also an excellent reference for what to do and not to do to keep yourself out of trouble in the Grand Canyon!
Death, Daring, & Disaster – Search and Rescue in the National Parks (Revised Edition)
Charles R. “Butch” Farabee, Jr.
Okay, all you search and rescue fanatics! Here is THE book for the most exciting stories drawn from almost 150,000 search and rescue missions carried out by the National Park Service since 1870! Butch Farabee has consolidated some of the most fascinating stories, past and present, into one encyclopedic collection. Supplemented with actual newspaper articles and reports, you’ll get incredible insight into the dangers of the various parks and gain new respect for those placing their lives at risk to save others.
Included is the collision of two airliners over the Grand Canyon in 1956, a last-second rescue of a little boy trapped beside his dead parents in a plane buried by a Sierra blizzard, the fate of fifty men aboard a World War II-era Russian freighter being shredded to pieces on the rocks off the Olympic coast, the perilous recovery of a victim of unrequited love at the heart of an active Hawaiian volcano, and the saga of a jet pilot who bailed out over Kings Canyon in 1956 and literally crawled out six weeks later.
Butch Farabee has worked with the National Park Service for more than thirty years and has been personally involved in almost 1000 rescues. He has worked at Glen Canyon, Lake Mead, Death Valley, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Glacier.
The Ultimate Desert Handbook : A Manual for Desert Hikers, Campers and Travelers
Mark Johnson
There is a book I really enjoy and feel is a great resource for hiking or traveling in the desert, which of course the Grand Canyon’s Inner Gorge is! I’m very excited about it because it is a manual for desert adventurers—a topic dismally ignored by most books on the subject of outdoor adventure. There are plenty of books covering oceans, mountains, and prairies, but you’d almost think the desert didn’t exist judging by how few books cover it. And I guarantee that hiking in the mountains and the desert are completely different from one another. This is an invaluable book for those hiking in Canyon Country. Following its advice could prevent a search and rescue incident!
Ready to Serve, Ready to Save: Strategies of Real-Life Search and Rescue Missions
Susan Bulanda, Marilyn Neudeck-Dicken
This book is a collection of actual missions from around the world. It provides useful information for those who are in the SAR field, and gives the layperson some wonderful insight into what rescues entail. So many people think that you just have to go out and save someone. There is so much more than that involved. The logistics of a rescue can be staggering, and one of your primary goals is to prevent anyone else from being placed at unnecessary risk. It doesn’t help matters much if the rescuer gets injured or dies in the process of saving the victim. Nobody wins in that case!
This book also gives great insight and lots of information on using Search and Rescue-trained dogs in the field. You’ll enjoy this book if you want to learn more to improve your own skills, or just read about exciting rescues.