Long Pine
01-10-2008, 09:26 PM
My daughter bought me a book for Christmas called "Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire" by Nicholas Howe. I'm sure some of you must have already read this. In any case, I finished reading it and just wanted to recommend it to anyone who enjoys hiking, especially if you have some familiarity with the White Mountains. It reads like a collection of short stories about mishaps, mostly deaths, on the Presidential Range. Despite the somewhat morbid nature of the book, it also provides a nice sense of the history of the area and great reminders about the appropriate precautions to take while hiking in this area (hearing about hypothermia deaths in August is pretty impactful). The mountain rescue process is also dealt with in some of the stories and the courage and determination of the people that attempt these rescues, despite incredibly unfavorable conditions, is inspiring. If you are the kind of person that can't imagine why someone would climb a mountain, you may find this boring, but if you are anything like me, you will find it very interesting.