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Trading Steel for Stone
When the author began his career as a volunteer mountain rescuer with the Alpine Rescue Team in Colorado seventeen years ago, he was a clueless Youngstowner fresh off the interstate from Ohio who didn't know Gore-Tex from Tex-Mex. He had a lifetime of ridiculously dangerous pursuits and backcountry sins to atone for, so he became a Rocky Mountain rescuer with the intention of repaying the massive karmic debt he had accumulated. This is the story of how a career in volunteer service to others transformed a self-absorbed Rustbelt redneck adrenaline junkie into one of the nation's leading voices in technical rope rescue.
234 pages, Paperback
Published May 30, 2016
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Tom Wood
88 books30 followersTom Wood graduated from Middle Tennessee State University on a Saturday then started full-time the following Monday at The Tennessean, where he spent the next 36 years as a sports writer and copy editor.
Tom covered area colleges, boxing, the Iroquois Steeplechase, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and other events. He still freelances mainly for the Ledger newspapers in Nashville and Knoxville and Chattanooga (Hamilton County Herald) but has also written for the Saltillo (MS) Daily Journal, Knoxville News Sentinel, Country Family News, the Naples News, and Ft. Myers News-Press, and other publications.
The short story "A Night on the Town" (2020) co-written with Michael J. Tucker is available as an ebook, and also has been turned into a full-length screenplay. Two of Tom's stories have been semifinalists in the Nashville Film Festival, Vendetta Stone (2015) and Death Takes a Holliday (2016). Tom's other short stories have appeared in the anthologies Writers Crushing Covid-19 (2020), Words on Water (2019), Tennesseans West Vol. 1 (2015), Weird Western Yarns Vol. 1, Western Tales! Vol. 3 and Filtered Through Time (2014).
Tom has worked as an extra on the ABC series "Nashville" (2012-2018) as well as "The Identical" movie (2014), a music video, and other multi-media projects.
Tom covered area colleges, boxing, the Iroquois Steeplechase, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and other events. He still freelances mainly for the Ledger newspapers in Nashville and Knoxville and Chattanooga (Hamilton County Herald) but has also written for the Saltillo (MS) Daily Journal, Knoxville News Sentinel, Country Family News, the Naples News, and Ft. Myers News-Press, and other publications.
The short story "A Night on the Town" (2020) co-written with Michael J. Tucker is available as an ebook, and also has been turned into a full-length screenplay. Two of Tom's stories have been semifinalists in the Nashville Film Festival, Vendetta Stone (2015) and Death Takes a Holliday (2016). Tom's other short stories have appeared in the anthologies Writers Crushing Covid-19 (2020), Words on Water (2019), Tennesseans West Vol. 1 (2015), Weird Western Yarns Vol. 1, Western Tales! Vol. 3 and Filtered Through Time (2014).
Tom has worked as an extra on the ABC series "Nashville" (2012-2018) as well as "The Identical" movie (2014), a music video, and other multi-media projects.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 28, 2016
As a former search & rescue leader, as well as someone with a sizable personal collection of mountaineering and survival related literature, I very much enjoyed reading and HIGHLY recommend Tom Wood’s book, Trading Steel for Stone.
Compared to others within the genre of search and rescue, this book is a captivating, outlying blend of unique mountain rescue stories mixed with an insightful introspection by the author, a national-level leader among the community of elite MRA mountain rescuers. Within the genre’s “usual” first responder stories and action, the narrator develops from a youthful, idealistic journalist (I’m haunted by the burning imagery of his first amendment anecdote), into a young, curious, brave volunteer, who initially is reluctant to assume the leadership and authority that bears such heavy responsibility; ultimately, the empathic, influential leader is evident, and he calls all of us to action on behalf of our brethren (both our communities’ first responders and all our mountain state neighbors) who have higher rates of suicide than the national average.
As someone who has coped with PTSD (related to the military and SAR), I have deep regard and gratitude for leaders, especially within the first responder and veteran communities, who bring attention to the subject of behavioral health support, and point out that true courage and heroism is being willing to listen to those who are at risk.
Thank you also to the author for leaving me gasping for air, while crying from laughter, as well as leaving me choked up with grief, or pensively pondering the suffering and bravery of humanity.
This book, more than simply a collection of mountain rescue stories, delves deeply into the history and soul of a mountain rescue team leader; in this book’s case, we go along with Mission Leader Wood as he searches for why risking one’s life, neglecting one’s family, suffering beyond most’s imagination, being part of a population with higher than usual suicide rates and rates of PTSD... why is it all worth it to respond to help an absolute stranger? Why is being a mountain rescuer more than just volunteerism, a hobby, an un paid profession? Why do people take such risks, “so that others may live?”
Compared to others within the genre of search and rescue, this book is a captivating, outlying blend of unique mountain rescue stories mixed with an insightful introspection by the author, a national-level leader among the community of elite MRA mountain rescuers. Within the genre’s “usual” first responder stories and action, the narrator develops from a youthful, idealistic journalist (I’m haunted by the burning imagery of his first amendment anecdote), into a young, curious, brave volunteer, who initially is reluctant to assume the leadership and authority that bears such heavy responsibility; ultimately, the empathic, influential leader is evident, and he calls all of us to action on behalf of our brethren (both our communities’ first responders and all our mountain state neighbors) who have higher rates of suicide than the national average.
As someone who has coped with PTSD (related to the military and SAR), I have deep regard and gratitude for leaders, especially within the first responder and veteran communities, who bring attention to the subject of behavioral health support, and point out that true courage and heroism is being willing to listen to those who are at risk.
Thank you also to the author for leaving me gasping for air, while crying from laughter, as well as leaving me choked up with grief, or pensively pondering the suffering and bravery of humanity.
This book, more than simply a collection of mountain rescue stories, delves deeply into the history and soul of a mountain rescue team leader; in this book’s case, we go along with Mission Leader Wood as he searches for why risking one’s life, neglecting one’s family, suffering beyond most’s imagination, being part of a population with higher than usual suicide rates and rates of PTSD... why is it all worth it to respond to help an absolute stranger? Why is being a mountain rescuer more than just volunteerism, a hobby, an un paid profession? Why do people take such risks, “so that others may live?”
July 6, 2016
I found this book wonderfully entertaining. There are some gruesome parts, but those are balanced by delightful humor and vulnerable insight. I highly recommend this to all my friends!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews