Found

A Life in Mountain Rescue

De: Bree Loewen

Narrado por: Rachel Perry

Mountain search-and-rescue volunteer Bree Loewen's to-do list isn't quite the same as most people's. On any given day, it might include:

• Go grocery shopping
• Bake pie seen on Pinterest
• Figure out what to do with my life
• Rescue climbers caught in avalanche on Chair Peak
• Pick up Vivi at Mom's

A former Mount Rainier climbing ranger and trained leader in mountain search-and-rescue, Bree shares the drama and the camaraderie of this work, as well as the challenges of trying to fit her other roles as wife and mother into what is still largely a masculine environment. In a fearless voice - disarming yet laced with dark humor - Bree guides us through intense recoveries, vivid wilderness landscapes, and the warmth she discovers in motherhood, community, and purpose.

©2017 Bree Loewen (P)2020 Tantor

Unique tone for the subject

Factual and funny...a good mix to cover the subject. I Enjoyed listening to this book.

Couldn’t finish this book

Too much personal information for my interest. Seems like the rescue stories are just a side story to the author”s own life philosophy.

Captures the Mountain Rescue experience

I think Bree did a good job capturing the awkward interactions that occur due to mountain rescuers being amateurs. Both the need to balance everyday life with being available for random calls. She also touches on how the techniques are different between sport climbs and search and rescue, mostly due to extra factors of safety. That said, she does alternate between being very confident and having no confidence in her abilities. I was on one of the missions mentioned and went to a training with Bree. She is a bad ass climber/hiker and knows a ton about Search and Rescue, so it is weird for her to voice so much self-doubt on her own abilities. She attributes it to being female in a majority male environment, but everyone I saw her was in awe of her abilities and knowledge.

Good read

This story was an entertaining read. I felt that it was geared more towards moms as there were multiple side stories about mundane family life intermingled with having to drop everything to perform a search and rescue. The author seems to have some kind of complex in relation to firefighters. I’ve worked as a search and rescue park ranger, a firefighter, and a ski patroller and I’ve always seen good camaraderie between the groups. She makes it sound like people look down on her because she is a volunteer, which is not something I’ve seen that often. Other than that, it was an entertaining story about some gnarly rescues and I recommend reading if you’re interested in SAR.

Told like a story

I’m not a climber or SAR
but I enjoyed this book. Any outdoors person will enjoy.

Informative and Soulful

The author paints a great portrait of what SAR is about and how a volunteer grapples with balancing their love of helping people and home life.
One thing that really resonated with me was her explanation of why she’d rather not get paid for it. I bake bread and am very good at it, but I don’t want to do it for a paying job. I’ve always thought that might suck the joy out of it.

Looking for your value

I enjoyed the many stories that comprised mountain SAR. Occasionally the narrator sounded so self deprecating & confused that it lost some continuity.

Interweaves rescues with family life

The stories were interesting and layered with meaningful domestic issues that are relevant to any rescuer. It makes me appreciate the
work these volunteers do, albeit that was drilled in by the author. The only
Thing I had an issue with had to do with the cadence it was read.
Overall though it was a worthwhile listen!

Love rescue stories told by rescuers

Other than her kind of always passively complaining about her husband it was really good! Each rescue is different. She shares back story when she can. We get to know her and her seemingly obvious insecurities about not ever having an actual career. Side note; I wish we all had the same passion and expertise at something like Bree Loewen does and that we didn’t have to work (or did) and could also pursue what really makes our hearts full. She is a role model in that way for sure. Great narrator.

Disappointed

I don’t often leave poor reviews of books. I made it half way through the book without anything worth taking away, I stopped there, no need for me to go further. In my opinion this book is about a woman who hates being female and complains about being a female in every aspect of her life as if it were only women who have ever struggled or faced hardships.