Over the Edge / Michael Ghiglieri & Thomas Myers - 2.5**

[Book Concierge]

Over the Edge – Michael P Ghiglieri and Thomas M Myers
2.5**

The subtitle is all the summary anyone needs: Gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in the most famous of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders. And the cover adds to this by showing skeletal remains and a mid-air collision. The authors recount all the fatalities occurring in the canyon area, from falls off the rim, to flash floods, to drownings, to murders, and yes aircraft mishaps.

The chapters are divided by cause: falls from the rim, falls within the canyon, environment (i.e. dehydration), etc. They have a pretty engaging style when they are recounting a specific scenario, giving the reader insight into the ways in which various visitors met their fate – mostly due to ignorance or callous disregard of warnings. But they tend to get preachy about the causes of most of these fatalities. (No. 1 risk factor is being a young male … especially one fueled by alcohol.)

I had the second edition, with is easily 100 pages longer than the original. Presumably this is because of additional information provided to them since the book was first published. While each chapter includes several detailed scenarios, a table at the end of each chapter outlines ALL the deaths attributed to that particular cause.

On the whole it was rather dry and somewhat boring.

In the interest of full disclosure, however … a couple of years before we met, my husband went on a Colorado River rafting trip in Grand Canyon. His raft broke apart when going over Crystal Rapids, dumping all passengers into the river. I was kind of expecting something along the lines of what my husband wrote about the trip when I picked up this book. Here is a snippet of what he wrote about that experience:
Your mouth is dry, your knuckles are white, your muscles are knotted, and ... you’re going over the edge. Time is now measured in hundredths of a second; everything seems to move simultaneously in slow motion and at lightning speed.

We’re falling towards the sluice hole. Opposite the sluice hole is an eight-foot standing wave crashing uphill into the sluice hole.

The bow of the raft touches the surface of the sluice hole. The raft is being hit by tons of water from every direction. That’s normal. But something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

Only later am I to learn that the raft has broken up. Thirteen people are in the water. But again, I don’t know this. It all happened too fast for me to comprehend. All I know is that I can’t breathe, and that it’s getting darker and darker.

I’m in the sluice hole. I’m being tossed, tumbled, turned and twisted. I’m being pulled down. I’m being pummeled by a thousand soft blows. I know that something has gone terribly wrong. I’m being pulled down and down. It’s getting darker and darker. It’s quiet, there is no sound. A warm stream flows down my leg. I’ve got to fight out of this. I’ve got to get to the surface.

Up … I’m going up. But I hit the underside of the capsized raft, and then I’m slammed back down, and down, and down. I go back up once more and once again hit the bottom of the raft, and then it’s back down and down. I’ve been under water for a long, long time. My head is about to explode, my lungs are on fire. I’ve got to breathe. I think about dying. I begin to see white flashes, something like stars or lightning. I just can’t hold my breath any longer. It’s black, it’s so black.

I start up again. This time I see light. This time I break the surface. I take in a huge breath of air. I’m in a churning, roaring mass of water. A wall is closing down on me, and then I’m slammed back down and down.
(From a "memoir" of his trip, written shortly after he returned. by Richard N Bartels)

After being thrown out of the eddy and catapulted downstream by the river’s strong flow (over yet another set of rapids – without a raft), he was eventually plucked from the water by another boat. Amazingly no one drowned; another rafting expedition gave them extra blankets and food, and luckily for my husband, HIS “ammo box” of personal gear was one of the bits of flotsam retrieved, so he had his spare pair of glasses. They had to spend the night, before they could be airlifted out the next morning.


LINK to my review

[KateNZ]

OMG - your husband’s story is amazing. And it sounds a lot better than the book (since it had a happy ending).

I’ve been to the canyon which was spectacularly beautiful, but didn’t go anywhere near an edge. We helicoptered in and landed on some ground about half way up. I’m petrified of heights so looking from the top wasn’t on the cards. I said I wanted to go back and do the raft trip so I could see it from river level but suddenly I feel much less keen!

[Book Concierge]

KateNZ wrote: "OMG - your husband’s story is amazing. And it sounds a lot better than the book (since it had a happy ending).

I’ve been to the canyon ... I said I wanted to go back and do the raft trip so I could see it from river level but suddenly I feel much less keen! "

My husband says, "Go for it! I would do it again!"

[[deleted user]]

I live 60 miles from the canyon. It is so beautiful. I want to raft it but I'm trying to find someone to do it with me! I'm hoping my son will find some time to do that before he leaves the country. Of course I'm a little scared but it would be such an experience.
Great review! Your husbands story is amazing.

[annapi]

OMG!! Your husband's story sounds terrifying! Reminds me of when we went whitewater rafting on the south fork of the American River and we spilled two people out of our rubber raft at Troublemaker rapids (aptly named!). My husband was one of them, and I managed a wild grab for his arm as he went over (I was able to stay on board), so he remained close to the boat. The one who got swept away was the only non-swimmer in our group. I cannot imagine how terrified he must have been, especially as this was a week or so before he was scheduled to have his pacemaker replaced. He was never pushed underwater like your husband, though, and they got back in the boat downstream.