Death, Daring, and Disaster (Revised Edition)

Search and Rescue in the National Parks

By: Charles R. "Butch" Farabee Jr., Stewart L. Udall - foreword

Narrated by: John McLain

Length: 23 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

First published in 1998, this perennial best seller distills more than 400 exciting tales of heroism from the 150,000 search-and-rescue missions carried out by the National Park Service since Yellowstone was established as the first national park in 1872. Updated to include the most notable incidents through 2004 (including the Park Service's efforts to protect the nation's treasures following 9/11), the new edition features recent rescues and rescue attempts from the icy slopes of Mt. Rainer to the seas off of Acadia National Park.

©2005 Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr. (P)2020 Tantor

Great audiobook for people interested in SAR

Overall great audiobook, loved the stories about all the different rescues. I only wish that they went into some more detail on some of the rescues but overall great listen, does a great job talking about the history of the NPS's SAR and gets into some lesser known history.

perfect voice for the story

loved it it was fascinating hearing about just how technically complicated rescues of any kind can be

Not as brief as some reviews suggest

I was a bit concerned when reading some other reviews that this would be three sentences a story, but that is not true at all. If you've read any other books about deaths in national parks, this is completely consistent with that. It's a very good reading, good storytelling and detail. Eventually I do get tired of hearing how every person is the world's best mountain climber in the world, or best backpacker in history, or a place is the hardest terrain, or deepest cave (when everything described is the MOST something, it completely loses meaning).

The narration is good and the book is long. I recommend!

Lazy narrator

I read the book when it first came out and I knew what to expect as far as material and style of writing. Many of the more recent searches that were included in the revised edition happened during my NPS career, so it took me back to events and people that I hadn’t thought of in years. (A few searches that I had expected to be included were not, but there is so much material I can understand why they didn’t make the cut.). Between that and being a search and rescue geek in general, I enjoyed the book. What made me crazy was the narration! I can understand not being able to pronounce certain Ranger’s names or more obscure areas within the parks, but mispronouncing park names is shear laziness on the part of the narrator. It doesn’t take a lot of research to learn how to pronounce them correctly. Then, Secretary Hodel’s name was pronounced incorrectly the first few times and later in the book it was correct. Again, seems like laziness to not make it right. Maybe I’m being overly picky, but the parks and this topic were my life. So thankful for the dedicated men and women who are still on the job. Keep up the good work!

Awesome book

What a detailed and thoughtfully written book on Search and Rescue and the historical events made throughout the last 100+ years!

National Park Adventures

Drop into the National Parks in a rather different type of read. From accidents, to lost hikers, and much more, this is a fantastic read.

As National Parks have become more popular, it stands to reason that there are going to be more people going missing from time to time. However, there are some good old fashioned accidents, and oopses during the peak seasons.

These stories, with the courage and training of our park rangers, are a great read. See a different side of the parks.

When you visit these locations, hike carefully!

A compendium of rescues and accidents in the NPS

A basic list of accidents in the national park system throughout the United States. Many covered in other books.

Interesting

Found the compilation of SARs interesting and entertaining, even reliving some of the stories that I personally participated in.
Thanks Butch!

Simply a list of events

I thought this would be really interesting, but it’s simply a list of dates throughout history and the narrator makes it’s very boring.

Just a list of dates

The book is a list of historical dates. There is next to no storyline. Not sure I will bother finishing.