The Last Season
by
Eric Blehm
To pick up The Last Season is to lose oneself in a mesmerizing story about a place few could survive in and even fewer have visited -- the unforgiving backcountry of the Sierra Nevadas. Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
January 30th 2007
by Harper Perennial
(first published 2006)
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I liked this book a lot. At first, I was skeptical. It seemed too ghoulish, and too unoriginal – too much like Into The Wild or The Perfect Storm. Gradually, I found myself transfixed, and looking forward to getting a little more time with the book..
It’s the story of a long term (28 years) seasonal backcountry ranger in the Eastern Sierra, Randy Mortenson, who one day goes out on patrol and never returns. The book shifts back and forth from the search (which was extremely extensive) and Mortenes...more
It’s the story of a long term (28 years) seasonal backcountry ranger in the Eastern Sierra, Randy Mortenson, who one day goes out on patrol and never returns. The book shifts back and forth from the search (which was extremely extensive) and Mortenes...more
I'm a sucker for biographies and suspense novels -- and this one delivers both. The story is fascinating and includes Yosemite National Park as a key character. The book tracks the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson, a long-time back woods ranger in Yosemite. Morgenson literally grew up in Yosemite ... his father worked in the administrative offices and the family had a home in Yosemite Valley. The story of the family is well developed and includes accounts of their unlikely friendships w...more
Somehow, true stories always have such a pull for me. Although many of us will know how the book ends (the primary events described are from 1996) prior to reading the first page, the author keeps us interested. Suspense builds, and at times I found myself wanting to shout through the walls of time, to tell the rescuers the clues. I docked a star because I feel towards the last third of the book it becomes unnecessarily detailed. Every action of every search team is logged. I was so excited to g...more
This book was a true wilderness mystery; an experienced backcountry NPS ranger goes missing in his assigned territory of the Sequoia/Kings National Park. The Last Season documents the life of Ranger Randy Morgenson and the massive search and rescue operation his disappearance triggered. Mr. Blehm had me turning the pages eagerly, swept up in the story, eager to learn more about Ranger Randy and anxious to piece together how he went missing.
What Mr. Blehm, and Ranger Randy through his own journal...more
What Mr. Blehm, and Ranger Randy through his own journal...more
What a great, great book. Tells the story of Randy Morganson who is a back-country ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is a man who has lived the majority of his life in the mountains and is clearly one of the finest in his rare and seriously neglected profession. In 1996 (it's been a month since I read it, so I may have the dates off) he disappears early in the season. Because of the turbulence in his life that lead up to the hiking season, there is plenty of speculation as to what real...more
Nov 09, 2007
Sundry
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in hiking, backpacking, mountains and/or a real American hero.
Shelves:
nonfiction
This book was recommended to me by some very enthusiastic park rangers at Death Valley. I am so glad I picked up a copy.
Upon finishing it this morning and reading through all the extra materials at the end of the book, I went straight to my notebook to write about the ideas that it provoked.
On the surface, it's a story about the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson, who spent 28 summers as a ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. But it's also about what it takes to be a back...more
Upon finishing it this morning and reading through all the extra materials at the end of the book, I went straight to my notebook to write about the ideas that it provoked.
On the surface, it's a story about the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson, who spent 28 summers as a ranger in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. But it's also about what it takes to be a back...more
Jul 01, 2011
Preeti
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
wardens-rangers-guides,
nature
Wow. Amazing, amazing book. The writing was superb and I learned a LOT. I picked this book up prior to my first trip to Yosemite National Park in California (US) - even though it mainly takes place in Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, it involves Yosemite as well.
The book is about a backcountry ranger, Randy Morgenson, who went missing in 1996 but it's about so much more than that. It's about nature and wilderness, being free, about the parks... It talks about his family, who knew Ansel A...more
The book is about a backcountry ranger, Randy Morgenson, who went missing in 1996 but it's about so much more than that. It's about nature and wilderness, being free, about the parks... It talks about his family, who knew Ansel A...more
If you liked "Into the Wild", you'll love this book. Randy Morgenson is a backcountry ranger in the Sierra Nevada and Kings Canyon national parks.
Randy never really got people, but he really understood nature and being isolated in it. Growing up with family friends like Ansel Adams set the tone for his view on the world.
In much the same vein as "Into the Wild", Randy goes missing early in the book and the author takes you on a recount of his life and what might have happened to him via intervie...more
Randy never really got people, but he really understood nature and being isolated in it. Growing up with family friends like Ansel Adams set the tone for his view on the world.
In much the same vein as "Into the Wild", Randy goes missing early in the book and the author takes you on a recount of his life and what might have happened to him via intervie...more
An enjoyable true-life missing person story from the King's Canyon National Parks region. I believe the story first showed up as a magazine piece in Outside. The first 100 pages or so took me a bit to get into. Eric Blehm's writing style at first seemed a little over the top in regards to how he described some of the wilderness areas the story is set in. It seemed at times that he was writing for an audience that never visited a national park, much less hiked on an overnight trip. Sentences like...more
The Last Season is the story of National Park Ranger Randy Morgenson, who went missing in the back country of my favorite place in the Sierras: Kings Canyon National Park. An experienced back country ranger, Randy seemed to vanish into thin air in July, 1996. This is the story of the harrowing search and rescue (SAR) mission undertaken by the National Park Service to try to find one of their own.
But was Randy truly missing, or did he slip out of the park undetected and run away to begin a new li
I thought this was a great book and very well-written. I loved the descriptions of the Sierra Nevada backcountry. However the book was about a missing backcountry ranger whom I found to be a deeply flawed human being. While we're all flawed to some degree (no one is perfect), the more I read about Randy's behavior towards his wife, friends, and colleagues, the more I grew to dislike him as a person. He had a privileged childhood but could not live up to his potential as an adult. He could not ac...more
If you are familiar with SEKI backcountry you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It is a fascinating portrayal of a man who loved the High Sierra so much it consumed him. It also delves into larger philosophical issues, like what is wilderness for and how should it be managed? The writing was a bit portentous at times - deleting a sentence or paragraph here & there would have made it less overwrought. Also, I think the author should have put the more detailed map in the back. Having said this,...more
I bought this book, appropriately, in the visitor's center in Sequoia/King's Canyon. The Ranger who sold it to me said it was a great book. The fact that in happened here, high in the back country made it even better! It is the story of Randy Mortensen, a long time back country ranger who is rather a different soul and loves the solace of the back country ranger life. He is involved in the usual ranger duties and has performed many search and rescue operations until that fateful day when he him...more
Nobody Remembers The Mountain Man
Growing up in Denver, Colorado I have been around the Rocky Mountains my whole life. The Last Session tells a true story of a park ranger named Randy. Randy was a veteran ranger who was very well know, suddenly he went missing. The whole community around was out searching for him. He was known to go off for a few weeks and randomly show up again. But this time was different. He had no radio communication for the past four days before being reported missing. The...more
Growing up in Denver, Colorado I have been around the Rocky Mountains my whole life. The Last Session tells a true story of a park ranger named Randy. Randy was a veteran ranger who was very well know, suddenly he went missing. The whole community around was out searching for him. He was known to go off for a few weeks and randomly show up again. But this time was different. He had no radio communication for the past four days before being reported missing. The...more
The Last Season is about the life and death (in 1996) of Randy Morgenson, a backcountry ranger in the Sierra Nevada's for 25+ years. The author, Eric Blehm, did an outstanding job researching, and writing, this book. The descriptions of the mountains was really interesting and his descriptions of Morgenson and how he became what he was were well done.
The book reads like fiction but isn't. Morgenson was a truly unique individual, he was absolutely dedicated to the wilderness, was friends with som...more
The book reads like fiction but isn't. Morgenson was a truly unique individual, he was absolutely dedicated to the wilderness, was friends with som...more
This is a story about a park ranger, Randy Morgenstern...The one they always turn to for help with search and rescue when someone is lost or hurt. Everyone considers him one of the best. An expert on the land and an expert in wilderness survival. And then he goes missing himself. I couldn't believe how the author kept me on the edge of my seat! Reading detailed descriptions of Morgenstern's life and personality had me wondering if he could have made a fatal error in judgement that cost him his l...more
Blehm's book is a loving examination of the life of Randy Morgenson, an ace seasonal park ranger and emergency rescuer in the Sierra Nevada, who went missing in July 1996.
Blehm does a masterful job in this book - telling the story of Randy's life from his birth onward, explaining his job and his passion (which were basically one and the same), describing the wilderness that Randy loved so well, and detailing the frantic but well-executed search that his fellow rangers pursued for a week before f...more
Blehm does a masterful job in this book - telling the story of Randy's life from his birth onward, explaining his job and his passion (which were basically one and the same), describing the wilderness that Randy loved so well, and detailing the frantic but well-executed search that his fellow rangers pursued for a week before f...more
This is the true story of the life and disappearance of a backcountry ranger in the Sierra. Randy Morgenson loved the high country, sacrificed many things in his life to spend as much time there as possible, had an encyclopedic knowledge of his mountains, and was not shy about sharing this love with others, whether to correct or inspire.
Yet, in the last couple of years before his disappearance, Morgenson found little solace in his mountains, and felt under appreciated in his job that he had love...more
Yet, in the last couple of years before his disappearance, Morgenson found little solace in his mountains, and felt under appreciated in his job that he had love...more
The Last Season recounts the search for a missing back country ranger. At least, that's the surface story. As a search in the wilderness mystery story, it's well written and suspenseful. But there are many more layers to this book. It's a meditation on the place of the wilderness in modern technological society. It's an essay on priorities in life. And it's a look at the strong role that the unconscious plays in our lives.
The Last Season is the story of Randy Morgenson, a back country ranger in...more
The Last Season is the story of Randy Morgenson, a back country ranger in...more
If you enjoyed Into the Wild, you'll love this book! If you haven't read Into the Wild, you'll still love this book! Eric Blehm has done a fantastic job with his research, and has the reader almost convinced by the end that they actually knew Randy Morgenson. My only complaint would be that I found myself wanting to skip some of the more intimate details of his marriage and family life, so that I might make it to the end sooner, and learn of Randy's fate. In the end, the intimate details give th...more
I read this book because of two converging events: 1) I read another Eric Blehm book, Fearless; and 2) the Discovery Channel produced a documentary about the life, disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson....which was partially filmed at the company for which I work in Fresno and using one of our employees as an actor. The Last Season could not compare to Fearless, however. Adam Brown, the subject of Fearless, overcame such incredible odds with such determination that his story could not hel...more
An incredible book that works on so many levels. Randy Morgenson is the best of the best – an experienced back country ranger who patrols some of the most remote and deceptively dangerous country in America. His sudden and unexplained disappearance triggers a massive search-and-rescue effort that is as compelling as any thriller. But The Last Season is more than a real-life mystery. Pulling from Morgenson’s own logbooks, author Eric Blehm also shares Randy’s evocative views on nature and man’s r...more
This is true story about risk and danger in the wilderness, recounted by Blehm after researching the mysterious disapearance of Randy Mortenson, a veteran wilderness ranger in the Sierra Nevada mountains. What is particularly engaging is how Blehm unravels the multiple facets of Mortenson's life and honors the conflicting and changing truths reported by Mortenson's family and friends. What we know up front is simply that Mortenson disappeared while patrolling the high Sierras. AS Blehm relates t...more
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My friend Burt Kornegay, a camping and canoe guide (http://www.slickrockexpeditions.com/) suggested this book. It's the story of the life and mysterious disappearance of Randy Morgenson a back country ranger in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks in California. It mixes a lot of descriptions of the rough beauty of the Sierras with the history of Yosemite and the national parks and the tough, lonely, dangerous life of the back country ranger. I discussed the training, rescue missions, and...more
This book was a treasure to me! However, it's not a book for everyone. I probably would not recommend it to most people. But if you love being in the great outdoors, appreciate nature's beauty and serenity and love to hike, like I do, you will absolutely love this book! It's the story of Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service backcountry ranger in Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park in the Sierras. The book is mainly about the search and rescue missions(SAR) to find Randy after he was reported...more
This book is certainly a story of a ranger lost in the backcountry. However, it is also a story of someone who appreciated wilderness for what it was, recognized the value of unspoiled country, and the complexities of living with people and alone where there are none.
The blurb for this book compares it to Jon Krakauer's writing and that is unfair to author Blehm. While Krakauer can tell a reasonably good story and has been a commercial success, Blehm has lived the story he tells. Blehm did th...more
The blurb for this book compares it to Jon Krakauer's writing and that is unfair to author Blehm. While Krakauer can tell a reasonably good story and has been a commercial success, Blehm has lived the story he tells. Blehm did th...more
Oct 03, 2007
Topher
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
outdoors interested people
Shelves:
non-fiction
I hiked the AT in 2001. I miss being outside...its really rare for there to be more than 2 or 3 days when I don't think about it. When I decided to leave Cisco and go back to school, I originally thought I was going to get a degree in forestry, and try to get a job as a forest ranger.
I could see me ending the same way as this story. It just left me feeling sad.
I could see me ending the same way as this story. It just left me feeling sad.
This book is the story of a park ranger who went missing and ended up dying, but it's also the story of reflections on a failed marriage, of reflections on what it means to be "in the wild" these days, and of reflections on what it means to search and search for something and not immediately find it. I would definitely recommend this one.
It does remind one of Into The Wild to some extent as the publisher claims but it's a totally different situation. This fellow was raised in the Yosemite Valley as a child and climbed in the Himalayas as a young man before spending 30+ seasons in the back country working as a park ranger for the National Park Service. This guy knew what he was doing and did not go out unprepared.
The real question is how a person such as this with such wisdom and value to our society might be put in a situation w...more
The real question is how a person such as this with such wisdom and value to our society might be put in a situation w...more
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“In any case, perhaps the quest for data to support our actions gets overemphasized. After all, our emotions distinguish us. Art and poetry and music are from and to the human heart, as is, for many, our relationship with the land.' ~ Randy Morgenson”
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3 people liked it
“The least I owe these mountains is a body. - Randy Morgenson”
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3 people liked it
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Nov 30, 2012 09:35am