loved this short book about a very experienced mountaineer who died during some of the literal worst weather on earth, and the people who tried to rescue her. the author is a risk assessor and this is more effective than any textbook. i learned so much and felt so much empathy and frustration.

#books #bookstodon

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/ef17e5fa-81da-42eb-a8ed-87dc9712dc92

Where You'll Find Me: Risk, Decisions, and the Last Climb of Kate Matrosova by Ty Gagne

On Feb. 15, 2015, Kate Matrosova, an avid mountaineer, set off before sunrise for a traverse of t...

the night she died, the white mountains of new hampshire had the second lowest observed temperature on earth (after antarctica) and the actual lowest windchill (-90F). they also have some of the consistently strongest winds on earth. that makes the mountains deceptively treacherous for their size.
if you loved "into thin air," which i also did -- this book is like if it were a case study instead. what's happening at every step here? who's making sound decisions, and who isn't? what do researchers say about how we feel and choose? it is genuinely . . . fascinating, eye opening, provocative
@aetataureate Yes, the NH White Mountains aren't very high but they are close to population centres and they have wind measurements, so we do know how bad the weather is. Maybe other places have extreme weather too, but not recorded.
@va2lam yep that's p much what i already said
@aetataureate (the converse, which I left unsaid, is that probably other places do have worse weather than the Whites, but we don't measure the weather there, because there is no one there)
@va2lam i understood your implication dude
@aetataureate oh, a mountaineering book I’ve missed. Thank you!
@badsamurai yw yw! a fellow sicko haha (my partner says this when i read more books about mountains or antarctica)