Crisis on Mount Hood: Stories from 100 Years of Mountain Rescue
Hood River, Hood River Library, Thursday, May 1 6pm
Portland, Powells City of Books, Sunday, May 4, 7pm
Bend, Roundabout Books, Thursday May 15 6:30 pm
San Francisco, Arc’teryx June 11
Seattle, Mountaineers Program Center, Tuesday, June 17 w Lowel Skoog
The world’s most climbed glaciated peak is on the brink of catastrophe. Massive crowds, throngs of inexperienced climbers, and social media are creating a record number of rescues on legendary, lethal 11,249-foot-high Mount Hood in Oregon. In Crisis on Mount Hood, emergency and rescue doctor Christopher Van Tilburg looks at the history of America’s oldest all-volunteer mountain rescue team, the Hood River Crag Rats, and his own three-decade commitment to search and rescue. Covering the past, present, and future, Van Tilburg highlights the titans of mountain rescue, the changes in climbing, the challenging effects of climate change, and, most of all, the volunteers—the unwavering passion, the importance of longstanding culture, and the challenge of modernization.
Christopher Van Tilburg, MD 