Danger Stalks the Land: Alaskan Tales of Death and Survival Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is easily the best collection of true adventure tales ever assembled. I was blown away by the courage, danger, and pure adrenaline running through these stories. My advice: run to your nearest bookstore and BUY THIS BOOK!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Danger Stalks the Land: Alaskan Tales of Death and Survival

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about Danger Stalks the Land: Alaskan Tales of Death and Survival

Read More...

Alaska's Women Pilots Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Thanks for a great book of personal experiences! Kudos from another woman who is in a field that has traditionally had few women - computer science. I had never heard about bush pilots; much less women who would brave the cold and isolation.
Besides enjoying for myself, I bought copies for my adventuresome daughters - another example of women who worked for their goals!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Alaska's Women Pilots

Alaska's climate, extreme topography, and settlement distribution make airplanes and helicopters a crucial means of transportation. Ninety percent of this state is unreachable by road, and at least one third of Alaska's people live in the bush. In Alaska, travel by air has always been more than just recreational and piloting has always been more than conventional. Alaska pilots are some of the most experienced and skillful aviators in the world, and they run the gamut from commercial pilots to aviation safety inspectors, from big-game guides and bush pilots to aerobatic fliers.In Alaska's Women Pilots: Contemporary Portraits, Jenifer Fratzke has compiled seven interviews of contemporary women aviatrices from nearly every reach of that gamut. This collection begins an important documentation of what women have contributed to the aviation industry in Alaska. Fratzke herself has been a flight attendant, flight engineer, copilot, and pilot. Through her eighteen years of experience flying in Alaska, she has tapped into Alaska's rich and unfolding aviation history by flying with and interviewing many women pilots. The seven oral histories she includes here explain the women's motivations for flying; they include the descriptions and praises of mentors that made all the difference; and they recall stories of grief and stories of good fortune. Each personal history is remarkable in what it reveals of the history of aviation in Alaska and the individual contributions that history is built on. These stories are unique and inspirational; at the same time they have an echoing quality that compounds, strengthens, and supports the voices of those who have gone before (Harriet Quimby, Beryl Markham, Pancho Barnes, and many others) and those who may come after.

Click here for more information about Alaska's Women Pilots

Read More...

Surviving Denali: A Study of Accidents on Mount McKinley 1903-1990 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This well written and researched book by Jonathan Waterman tells an interesting and pretty harrowing experiences of things that can go wrong when you climb a mountain. In this case, that mountain is Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America and a popular climbing peak due to its accessibility. The author takes these "statistics" of injuries, accidents and deaths into a learning experience for the readers of his book. These "statistics" often results from accidents, carelessness, medical edemas, unprepareness, lack of skills and bad luck that can happened to anyone at anytime on Mount McKinley. But the author make it clear that if all the proper precautions, preparation and training were engrained, a climber would have most of the favors on his side (her side).
I think this book probably could use an update. The book ends at 1990 which's 14 years ago and many things have changed and more lessons to be learned.
This book basically go over many of the bad things that happened to people on Mount McKinley and why. The author make it clear that this is not a very safe mountain to climb despite of its yearly heavy traffic and high summit success rate. The book should be considered as a mandatory reading material for any first time climber of Mount McKinley. As Otto von Bismarck once said, "Only fools learned from their own mistakes, the smart ones learns from the mistakes of others". I think the author is trying to get that message out.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Surviving Denali: A Study of Accidents on Mount McKinley 1903-1990

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about Surviving Denali: A Study of Accidents on Mount McKinley 1903-1990

Read More...

Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A book I couldn't put down, literally. I had a vacation planned and was looking for a page turner, and found this incredibly gripping story on the recommendation of a friend. Like some of the other reviewers, I've never really been into the Deadliest Catch or that sort of reality television, but that didn't matter at all. Trust me, pick up this book even if it's not in your wheelhouse. I never knew how hardcore the Coasties were! It's a fast-moving, well-written book that can compete with the best of Krakauer or Junger, with a lot less pretense (and a few more fish).

Click Here to see more reviews about: Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History


Soon after 2:00 A.M. on Easter morning, March 23, 2008, the fishing trawler Alaska Ranger began taking on water in the middle of the frigid Bering Sea. While the first mate broadcast Mayday calls to a remote Coast Guard station more than eight hundred miles away, the men on the ship's icy deck scrambled to inflate life rafts and activate the beacon lights, which would guide rescuers to them in the water. By 4:30 A.M., the wheelhouse of the Ranger was just barely visible above the sea's surface, and most of the forty-seven crew members were in the water, wearing the red survival suits-a number of them torn or inadequately sized-that were supposed to keep them from freezing to death. Every minute in the twenty-foot swells was a fight for survival. Many knew that if they weren't rescued soon, they would drown or freeze to death.

Two Coast Guard helicopter rescue teams were woken up in the middle of the night to save the crew of the Alaska Ranger. Many of the men thought the mission would be routine. They were wrong. The helicopter teams battled snow squalls, enormous swells, and gale-force winds as they tried to fulfill one guiding principle: save as many as they could. Again and again, the helicopters lowered a rescue swimmer to the ocean's surface to bring the shipwrecked men, some delirious with hypothermia, some almost frozen to death, back to the helicopter and to safety. Before the break of dawn, the Coast Guard had lifted more than twenty men from the freezing waves-more than any other cold-water Coast Guard rescue in history.

Deadliest Sea is a daring and mesmerizing adventure tale that chronicles the power of nature against man, and explores the essence of the fear each man and woman must face when confronted with catastrophe. It also investigates the shocking negligence that leads to the sinking of dozens of ships each year, which could be prevented and makes commercial fishing one of the most dangerous occupations in the world.

With deft writing and technical knowledge, veteran journalist Kalee Thompson recounts the harrowing stories of both the rescuers and the rescued who survived the deadly ordeal in the Bering Sea. Along the way, she pays tribute to the courage, tenacity, and skill of dedicated service people who risk their own lives for the lives of others.

Get 34% OFF

Click here for more information about Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History

Read More...

Coast Guard Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a grand publication. I have been waiting patiently for this book and it exceeds all my expectations. This book can be kept with pride on any coffee table
A job superbly done by Mr Tom Beard. Thank You
Ken Laesser EMCM USCG (ret)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Coast Guard

Written by an outstanding team of historians and officers, the definitive story of the U.S. Coast Guard is recorded for the first time in this magnificently illustrated, large-format book published with the Foundation for Coast Guard History. Stories of the "Coastie" experience as well as essays on history, lighthouses, search and rescue, aviation, the drug war, and the war on terrorism all share one common focus: the highly trained and motivated people who make it all work.

Click here for more information about Coast Guard

Read More...

Cheating Death: Amazing Survival Stories from Alaska Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book is full of excellent stories of survival in the vast and varied wilderness of Alaska. What I enjoyed most about these stories was the sense of ordinary people up against the extraordinary forces of nature and circumstance. There's a personal flavor to some of the chapters. Almost as if you're hearing your neighbor telling a story about his cousin up in Petersburg. Is this the best written book in the world? No, but the true stories are pretty good.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cheating Death: Amazing Survival Stories from Alaska

A chilling collection of survival stories from pilots, hikers, hunters, climbers, boaters, and fishermen who confront their mortality -- and live to tell about it! You will be astonished by the close calls of a young man who clings desperately to life on an iceberg in the lower Susitna River . . . a woman who struggles frantically to escape the cockpit of a small plane sinking beneath the waters of a remote bay in Southeast . . . the climbers who fight stubbornly to survive as avalanche after avalanche sweeps over them . . . and the diver who tangles with a giant octopus.

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about Cheating Death: Amazing Survival Stories from Alaska

Read More...

Nine Lives Of An Alaska Bush Pilot Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have been a military pilot for over 15 years, flying for 21. I bought Ken's book because I am switching to a career as a Helicopter Bush Pilot and hoped it may offer some useful insights. I certainly wasn't dissappointed!
Ken started flying floatplanes around Alaska's Panhandle way back in the '30's, and had a pretty good time of it too, by all accounts. Any budding floatplane pilots will certainly gain plenty from reading the book - perhaps even a few grey hairs! Consequently, when the first Helo hit town, Ken could see it's potential. He developed many of the procedures first hand for operating helicopters in the Alaskan Bush - much of it by trial and error, and more than a few narrow escapes. Nine lives? I reckon he burnt up more than that in the first chapter! Sometimes he was a bit lucky. For the most part it is apparent that his instincts, finely honed over time, practise, respect for mother nature and a real passion for what makes things fly (or NOT fly!), saved both his backside and his airframe MANY times.
What I didn't know when I bought the book was that Ken set up and grew TEMSCO Helicopters, from nothing. It thrives today and has thrived through the continued aviation 'bent' of both his son and now his grandson, the present boss of TEMSCO. Hat's off to that.
If you are considering getting into a career in the Bush, with fixed or fling-wing Ops, I would highly recommend this book. By the time you finish you will have a far greater appreciation of the risks (and rewards) of the job, the heartbreak in losing good friends to bad parts, respect for ALL flying operations, some fascinating techniques, and a significant insight into the employers point of view in a Bush-type, aviation company. It's entertaining, and if you are passionate about your flying, it is VERY easy to relate to.
Who knows, perhaps the knowledge gained from just one of the incidents in this book may save YOUR backside?!
Well Done Ken - really enjoyed the ride!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Nine Lives Of An Alaska Bush Pilot

Drawn to Alaska in search of Adventure in 1938, Ken Eichner found himself scratching out a living on the wooden streets of Ketchikan. Enraptured with aviation, Eichner soon followed his heart again, and scraped together the money for flying lessons. The result was one of Alaska's best-known rescue pilots, famous for taking a helicopter wherever it needed to go to save lives, often at the risk of his own. (352 pages, 4 maps, 128 photographs.)

Click here for more information about Nine Lives Of An Alaska Bush Pilot

Read More...