By Michael P. Ghiglieri - Over The Edge: Death in Grand Canyon (2 Exp Rev)

by Michael P. Ghiglieri

Excellent Book

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel, Adventure, Nature, Outdoors, Survival

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Michael P. Ghiglieri grew up at Lake Tahoe, Nevada as the great grandson of a Forty-niner, served as a US Army platoon sergeant during the Viet Nam era, then earned his Ph.D. in Ecology in 1979 from the University of California at Davis for his pioneering research on wild chimpanzees in Kiable Forest, Uganda. In addition to teaching university courses in primate behavior and ecology and in human evolution and ecology, he has directed several semesters-over-seas centers focusing on sustainable resource management (in Kenya, the Turks & Caicos, Palau, Far North Queensland, and Vancouver Island) and has worked as a wilderness river guide and EMT. Since 1974 he has run more than 660 commercial whitewater trips and also treks in Ethiopia, Java, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, Sumatra, Tanzania, Turkey, and the USA. These include 140+, 2-week rowing or paddling trips through Grand Canyon and more than 43,000 miles of river overall, a few in the Canyon as an NPS ranger, plus several Kilimanjaro ascents.

Reviews

[Benny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books you see in the gift shop at Grand Canyon NP, and you think "yeah, that might be interesting." It is absolutely riveting. Basically, it is a chronicle of every known fatality that has happened in the park. While that sounds kind of morbid, due the authors in depth research and great story telling ability, each incident takes on a life of it's own. It is a must read for anyone who would venture below the rim on foot or in a boat down the Colorado. The lessons learned here could save your life. It makes you appreciate and respect the dangers involved with traversing this magnificent wilderness. Highly recommended for anyone with a fascination for the American West. Tony Hillerman fans will love this book.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library prior to a trip to the Grand Canyon a few years ago- I found it interesting and a good warning to be careful when I was there (and was preaching to my husband and my children the whole time.) Crazily enough, we ended up witnessing a man falling to his death that same trip (N. Rim- Bright Angel Point), and the warnings of the book were really driven home. They were selling it at the gift shop when we were comfort shopping after the incident (shock does weird things), and I recommended it to other people shopping there.

We ended up talking to a park Ranger while they were searching for the man, and accidents happen frequently due to careless behavior of people who think the park is Disneyland. It is not. The book is a sobering but realistic look at what goes on every year but does not make more than the Flagstaff news.

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon while reading two of Kevin Fedarko's books, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon and A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon.

Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon shares stories and statistics about deaths in the Grand Canyon from the 1800s through 2000. It is incredibly well-researched, and it helps readers understand what causes fatalities in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It is divided into chapters on falls, flash floods, drownings, airplane/helicopter crashes, freak accidents/errors, suicide, and murder.

The data analyzation provides fascinating insights, such as:

* Testosterone is an accomplice. Overwhelmingly the majority of deaths are males.

* Life jackets do save lives. Wear them on boats and rafts. They should also be worn while fishing while standing on the shores of the Colorado river.

* Alcohol is the most common single precipitating factor in camp disappearance that leads to drowning.

* Urinating in the Colorado river is one of the most common causes of drowning.

* There have been ZERO deaths in the Grand Canyon due to scorpions, rattlesnakes, or venomous spiders.

* Most deaths were due to people doing something that influenced their fatal outcome. In other words, don't be stupid. Use common sense and ensure personal safety is a top priority.

Some memorable passages include:
* Luck is an undependable commodity.

* 70% of inner Canyon deaths are male, solo hikers.

* A hiking companion can be a voice of reason. A solo hiker has a fool for a companion.

* Shortcutting is the mother of all hiking errors.

* The Grand Canyon's desolation and immensity are the siren song to many people.

* Dehydration is like a brain vampire.

* There are 241 flights into the Canyon every day. One every three minutes. Much higher rate of airplane/helicopter crashes than Yellowstone or the busy Phoenix airport.

* Nature demands of us that we pay attention.

* People who die traumatically at the Grand Canyon almost do so universally due to their own poor judgement.

A friend and I hiked the North Rim to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in October 2024. Our goal was to hike it in one day, despite large signs and warnings not to attempt to do so. As darkness descended, we realized we were not going to make it out of the Canyon. A park ranger indicated we could sleep on top of picnic tables and hike out in the morning. So that is what we did. We underestimated our abilities. The temperature at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Canyon in mid-October was 110 degrees.

I highly recommend this book, particularly for those interested in visiting the Grand Canyon and other fabulous wonders of nature.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This can kind of be viewed as a companion volume to Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, despite being by different authors. They're both the same basic concept: this is how everybody who died in the national park died. Which is ever bit as morbidly fascinating as you might imagine. What struck me in relationship to the Yellowstone book is that, although the causes of death are quite different, the thought processes that lead to them are remarkably similar: the signs aren't for me, the trail markers are just suggestions, I don't need that much water, it isn't that far, etc. At least I don't have to worry about this book intruding on a potential future trip. I'm afraid of heights, and visiting the Grand Canyon sounds terrifying to me anyways.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an outdoor adventure enthusiast, I thought it might behoove me to read this book. The take-away lesson is that the overwhelming preponderance of deaths and other mishaps are the result of poor judgement or a lack of knowledge. Some of these matters are no brainers, such as guard rails with warning signs. Others are easily learned, such as the amount of water you need to hike when the temperature is over 100 degrees, or the fact that hiking back out of the canyon at the end of the trip is much harder than hiking down when you are fresh, or that established trails possess great wisdom. A few are less obvious, such as flash floods in slot canyons that occur when the storm is out of sight, miles away. As a river-runner, I was particularly interested in the section on river mishaps. This book confirmed what I already suspected: this river deserves respect, drunkenness on the river is often lethal, life jackets save lives, and commercial trips are relatively safe.

[Jeff Jellets · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quintessential souvenir of any visit to the Grand Canyon and one of the very best books on America’s greatest natural wonder.

Confession: a buddy of mine almost fell off the edge of Grand Canyon. We were descending Angel Bright trail along with a crowd of other tourists; the trail being very, very muddy with melting snow. As the four of us tried to dodge the mire, one of us (rather smartly or so we thought) took to walking on the rocks lining the right edge of the path to keep his boots clean -- little realizing that the melting rivulets of snow had undermined the rocks. I heard a shout, and I remember looking back to see about three quarters of his body hanging over empty space as one of the rocks gave way. Fortunately, one of his knees hit the trail’s edge and, on hands and one knee, he was able to frantically scramble back onto the trail. Luck and reflexes may have kept my friend from being one more entry in the next edition of this book.

And like jerks, we –- his so-called friends -- we laughed so hard our bellies ached. If he had fallen, how would we have gotten home? He had the car keys in his pocket.

I bought Death in Grand Canyon as a memento of that trip; it seemed apropos.

As the title suggests, this is a book about death (and near death) in one of the most dynamic environments on earth. It may seem grim -- very few of these real-life dramas end well -- but authors Michael Ghiglieri and Thomas Myers’s Death in Grand Canyon is quite a bit more than a study in simple morbidity. The Grand Canyon is arguably the most famous natural wonder in all of North America, and the authors evoke the wonderful magnificence of the place throughout the text. But it is also this very grandeur and enormity that makes the Canyon an environment ‘unto itself’. Visit Grand Canyon, and you are very much a stranger in a strange land. It is wonderful, beautiful, and one of the best places on the planet -- but it can also be brutally unforgiving – especially to the unfortunate, the ignorant, or the stupid (see me … above).

This is a pretty thick tome – painstakingly researched – but despite the density of the content and vigorous attention to historical detail and data, Ghiglieri and Myers keep the material eminently readable, buoying the text with amazing stories that are interesting, often heartbreakingly tragic, and frequently, nail-bitingly suspenseful. The story of Glen and Bessie Hyde, for example, is both achingly sad and enticingly mysterious. And, though many of the incidents recounted by the authors are decades (if not more than a century) old, the authors let no dust settle on these dramatic stories of survival. They seem as real and relevant as if they happened only yesterday, and the survival lessons they tell are as applicable to the twenty-first century as the nineteenth.

I also added this one to my 'disaster' library, and folks in that business (like myself) will want to take a special look at Chapters 3 and 5 -- on flash floods and air crashes respectively. Ghiglieri and Myers’s recounting of the Havasu Canyon flash flood and the daredevil heroics of pilot Michael Moore reads like a high tension thriller. Moore flew his small helicopter down the narrow Havasu Canyon fissure just minutes ahead of the raging flood waters, risking his own life to desperately to warn sunbathers and boaters in the canyon of the roaring wall of water headed toward them like a concrete slab. Likewise, the 1956 midair collision of TWA Flight 2 and United Airlines Flight 718 in the skies over Grand Canyon marks a sad milestone in both aviation and disaster management history. The crash was the worst civil air disaster in history (prior to 1960) and provided the impetus for the formation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), tighter management of the nation’s airspace, and many of our nation’s modern air incident response practices.

I may have bought this book as a souvenir of an incident that reminded my friends and I perhaps a bit too much of our own fragility and mortality, but even if you are not lucky enough to be admiring the view from Grand Canyon Village, Death in Grand Canyon is still well worth grabbing whether your interest is the outdoors, disaster operations, or history in general. It is chock full of information about one of the most amazing places on earth ... and the people who went there, but did not leave.

And, if you plan to on doing a bit of hiking or camping in the park, then I would say this is pretty much essential reading.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure why I didn't review this before. I read it years ago. The story I remember the most is the idiot that was a practical joker who "pretended" to fall off of the wall of the rim as his daughter was walking by. She thought he was joking, and he was, but he didn't understand physics and terminal velocity. This will have to be a re-read sometime in the future. It was a good one.

[Book Concierge · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

In the interest of full disclosure … 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. 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.

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 "camped" out in the open, before they could be airlifted out the next morning.


THIS book, however, is nothing like my husband's account.

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.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this, it appears to be safer not visiting the Grand Canyon. Between falls, floods, the river, etc. , it's seems looking at a picture is the way to go. Seriously, the book is about the many ways people have died while exploring or visiting the beautiful Grand Canyon back to the 1800's. It was an interesting book.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book had been half the length that it actually is, I might have given it higher marks, but it is not only an exhaustive review of death in the Grand Canyon, it is an exhausting review. There are only so many ways that one can describe falling over the edge, slipping over the edge, getting caught in rapids, etc, before it becomes a mind-numbing rather than a thrilling read. Better editing was needed here. That said, the writing is good, and the first few pages of each chapter are highly readable.

[Malin Friess · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. The most common question (although macabre and morbid) asked by Visitors to Grand Canyon National Park is: How many people die here each year? It depends. For example in 1996 alone 16 people died in the grand canyon and 482 search and rescues were performed.

After hiking down the South Kaibab Trail to Phantom Ranch and then back up Bright Angel Trail with my family I realized that the Grand Canyon is not to be played with. Warning signs abound (don't hike down to the river in back in one day, boston marathon runner dies on plateau trail despite running marathon in 3 hours, pictures of people puking with warning signs of heat stroke and dehydration) along the trails.

The book is divided by chapters: Falls within the canyon (getting bucked by a mule), Falls from the rim (backing up while taking a picture, or sadly losing track of your 3 year old child), flash flood, the desert and heat stroke (all too common--boy scouts who did not bring enough water, father daughter who underestimated a trail, hiking in 120 degree heat), drowning (trying to swim across the Colorado river..its colder and more powerful than you might think).

This book is fascinating (even the front cover has a skull at rest among the rocks). I hear there is another one called death in Yellowstone (you must admit you always wanted to know if someone ever fell into the boiling mudpots).

4 stars. At times the lists of death, location, cause, date, time can read like an encyclopedia, but seeing the unfortunate events that occur when people do not prepare leaves me better prepared for future trips with my family in this perhaps the grandest of all the National Parks.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a somewhat paranoid person when it comes to edges and my children, I am glad I read this book AFTER our vacation to the Grand Canyon. Which I just have to say was amazing - it is one of the most beautiful places on earth! Just stay on the trail and watch your step and drink lots of water! This book is completely fascinating and full of crazy, sad, shocking, scary, and amazing stories about death in the Grand Canyon. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction! I learned so much, for example, I had no idea there was a mid air collision over the Canyon in the 50s. But mostly I learned that the Grand Canyon is incredibly dangerous and must be respected and well prepared for. I have been telling my family these stories for the past two months, which has led to some interesting family discussions. So yes, Spencer - faulty toasters DO kill more people every year than have ever died in the Grand Canyon... But I still say no way to any high adventuring in the Canyon someday! Not while I'm the mom anyway!

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent read, if not a little morbid. Definitely recommended before and during a trip to the Grand Canyon as it gives a good insight into how tourists foolishly take for granted that nature can kill you. Plenty of stories and statistics that help you plan your journey better, especially in regards to the amount of water you need to take should you decide to do any hiking below the rim. Further, it demonstrates how easily one's common sense can disappear when facing one of the wonders of the world- people have fallen backwards down the canyon while trying to take photos of the lodge they were staying at!
A very interesting read and one that might help save your life when going to any national park or wilderness area.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this in the gift shop at the Grand Canyon. I found it such a great book. The stories were very riveting and some of them quite sad. Perhaps the saddest ones were the deaths that could have easily been avoided. I think the huge tourist presence at the Grand Canyon gives people a sense of security that can give them false confidence and make them disregard the real dangers of traveling and hiking in and around the area. The book gave me a new respect for nature and reminded me that there's a reason 'be prepared' is the Boy Scout motto. Preparation, including knowing your surroundings well, can up your chances of survival!

[Ted Haussman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and researched and for some who fell in love with the Canyon and its grandeur at first sight, it was a great read. It is not great because of the gory details -- and there are plenty -- because of what it teaches you about survival generally and in the Canyon. Plus, the final chapter is a captivating one discussing the various murder mysteries that have bloomed from the Canyon and which may never been definitely settled.

I learned much from my solo, overnight hike into Grand Canyon this past summer but I feel better prepared after reading this book for when I return, which will be soon.

[Melinda Brasher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the unprofessional cover. This book is good stuff.

Morbidly fascinating. Certain chapters just kept me reading and reading, glued to the page long after I needed to go to bed. Others I found rather dry (like, ironically, the drowning chapters). Some did get a bit repetitive, but with the exception of the aforementioned river chapter, I think the repetition was handled fairly well, showing different details with each case. Overall the book was intensely interesting, disturbing, enlightening, and educational. I learned a lot.

The writing itself had a few little issues. I wished they'd explained some of the terminology better, like in the river rafting chapter. I, a layman, had a hard time picturing some of the scenarios because I was unfamiliar with the rafting terms. Some of the other vocabulary was just slightly off. For example, "embattle" is not a fancy synonym of "battle." "Evans and Torres continued capering in their desperate antics to embattle the penetrating chill for nearly three hours." No…the chill embattled them. They didn't embattle the chill. This sort of subtle inaccuracy was sprinkled throughout the book. The many, many uses of "traverse across" or "traverse through" bothered me. If you move in a series of back and forth movements (as you often do in hiking/climbing), then it seems that you can indeed use a preposition after "traverse." Otherwise, "traverse" already means "to move across or through," so if you say "they traversed across the scrub," you're literally saying they moved across across the scrub. It should simply be "they traversed the scrub." Since many of the people traversing things may have indeed been switchbacking, and since perhaps this is specialized canyoneering phrasing, many of these examples were probably technically correct. However, I still think some of their "traverses" should have stood alone. And though the authors must have written phrases like "in Grand Canyon" hundreds of times, never once did they explain why it's not "in THE Grand Canyon," as I've known it my whole life. They're the experts, but I really needed an explanation as to why they dropped the "the."

I wished the charts at the end of each chapter had included a simple count of fatalities at the top, but otherwise they were useful, and the summarizing chart at the end did provide the general numbers.

None of these previous issues are serious, and none detracted significantly from the book.

However, I did take issue, quite seriously, to the way the authors talked about people who commit suicide. The "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem" quote that the authors use more than once is insensitive and often plain wrong. The temporary problem is usually just the straw that breaks the camel's back, after the camel has carried a heavy load for years. People who kill themselves are usually not weak, as the authors pretty much state outright. Instead, they've been strong for so many years, fighting whatever demons haunt them, and their strength has finally run out. People who have never faced clinical depression, mental illness, etc. should not judge those who have. Even people who have faced these problems cannot judge the degree to which others suffer, since they often hide it well. Nor can they accurately understand what opportunities for help are or are not available to them, the many aspects of their lives or personalities that affect the base problem, etc. Saying things like "the rest of us just get on with our lives" shows a deep ignorance of the difficulties some people face. There's a big difference between temporary situational depression or grief and long-term non-situational clinical depression caused by physical imbalances in the brain. Yet the authors show no sensitivity to this. No, suicide is not a good solution. And yes, it is selfish and unethical to do it in a way or place that will put others in danger to try to rescue you or recover your body. But I think the authors would have communicated this message more effectively if they'd showed more compassion.

That major issue aside, I did really enjoy the rest of the book. It's full of great content, from research done during WWII on how the body reacts to heat and lack of water to the strange circumstances around the only mountain lion-related death in the park's history. I found the information about hyponatremia very surprising. I marveled at how grossly underprepared and underinformed some canyon hikers are. I totally agreed with the well-stated arguments about how GPS and cell phones have actually made the Canyon more dangerous. And, perversely, it made me want to visit the Grand Canyon even more.

A great quote in the book, written by dying hiker Bryce Gillies: "I feel like going into the wild is a calling all feel, some answer, and some die for."

I cannot fathom the amount of research that has gone into this book. It's a very useful and interesting source of information. It is also a good lesson in what not to do in the Grand Canyon. I recommend it to anyone interested in the Grand Canyon, the rigors of nature, the power of desert heat, interesting survival stories, unprepared hiker stories, etc. I just recommend that you skip the chapter on suicide.

Rating of suicide chapter: 1 star
Rating of chapters on murder, drowning, air accidents: 3
Rating of first few chapters: 4+

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Forewarned, it is then up to the personal responsibility of each of us to avoid killing ourselves--and thereby also avoid tacitly accusing the wilderness of being our murderer... Forewarned enough, perhaps we and our vanishing wilderness will both survive."

Five stars? Yes. Full disclosure: I'm a member of my local search & rescue organization. This may have influenced my rating just a tad. Uniformed people in the desert/mountains make up the majority of our calls, and I wish we could make them all read this.

- First, this was the right book read at exactly the right time, that is, just days after a ten-day river trip down the Grand Canyon.
- Second, because it's so thoroughly researched--not just the dates and events, but the authors' combined knowledge of the canyon, the river, search and rescue, medical first aid, even the effects of hot desert air on aircraft performance.
- Third, it's addictive and uncomfortably compelling (notice I did not say literary. Though there may be a Barry Lopez quote in here somewhere worth memorizing). From the edge-of-seat near-rescue of a drunk woman walking the South Rim retaining wall, to a serial killer, to my personal favorite story about the 1927 honeymooners Glen & Bessie Hyde who nearly ran the whole river, then disappeared somewhere above Diamond Rapid (drowning? murder?), it's nearly impossible to stop reading until the end. Mainly because sleeping after putting this down practically guarantees nightmares. Every documented death in the Grand Canyon is included here: all 600+, some in novelistic detail and some in chart indexes at the end of each chapter. But also (wisely) included are stories of near misses, heroism, and happy outcomes. All is not dire. But somehow this makes for even more intense reading--will this person make it? Or not?
- Fourth, and most importantly, it goes beyond being a grotesque curiosity book for morbid readers (guilty as charged) to actually serving its stated purpose of educating readers on the varied and sometimes not so obvious dangers of canyon country Does anyone outside of the Southwest think of flash floods as anything but an improbable, Hollywoodesque disaster?

This is a must read for visitors to the Canyon, though you may think twice about your visit if you choose to read the book before the visit. It definitely helps to have a general familiarity with the area, though maps are included in front, and I kept a finger there so I could constantly flip back and forth. It may also help (though is not necessary) to know a little river jargon and wilderness first aid terminology. Absolutely necessary before even touching this book is the right attitude. Not just a desire for a scare-your-pants-off thrill, but the realization that there is a pattern of behavior behind many of these incidents that a modicum of respect for nature might have prevented. Don't ignore posted warnings. Don't get drunk on the river. Wear a lifejacket and don't ever enter a wash during a rainstorm in the desert. As the authors (a riverguide/ranger and an historian/MD) like to remind the reader, despite the word "park", the Grand Canyon is not Disneyland. It was not designed for the comfort and safety of humans.

[Edward · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would never have read this book had I not recently visited the Grand Canyon. Everyone knows the appearance of the Grand Canyon from photographs but to actually see it in person is an extraordinary experience. I wandered along the south rim for several days gazing into its depths at the incredible rock formations, and feeling my duration on earth insignificant in the scale of the many millions of yeas that the Canyon took to form.

With such thoughts in mind when I came across this book, I was unable to resist it. Why would people not be unusually cautious in the midst of all this immensity of nature? People's perceptions vary, of course, but for the most part over the past century and a past they perished because of foolishness and ignorance. Most of the deaths could have been prevented.

The book breaks down the types of deaths into ten categories. People have fallen off the rim, or from formations in the canyon, always due to carelessness - around a hundred of them. A lot of people have died from dehydration while hiking within the canyon. They just didn't realize how much liquid evaporated from their bodies and failed to drink enough water. These deaths are called "environmental" ones because of a lack of appreciation for the harsh surrounds, particularly in the summer when temperatures rise well above 100 degrees in the Canyon. Then there are flash floods which have trapped and drowned people, as well as drowning in the Colorado River which flows through the canyon, due to treacherous currents and rapids. Fewer in number are freak accidents from lightning storms and falling rocks. And fewest in number,, almost non-existent, are fatal bites from poisonous snakes and spiders. Finally, a few f suicides and homicides have been recorded.

By far, though, and initially surprising most people (several hundred) have died in small plane crashes. The air in and over the canyon is highly unstable, both because of the difference in elevation between the rims (7000 to 9000 feet above sea level) and the river nearly a mile lower. This contributes to volatile updrafts and downdrafts as well as violent thunderstorms. Many inexperienced pilots have failed to take these conditions into account with predictably disastrous results.

The authors emphasize that almost all the deaths are due to poor judgment and it's their hope that the book will result in people making better decisions. That's probably futile as I'd suspect that the people who make poor judgments are the ones who do the least planning, and of course reading this book is a form of precautionary planning.

It's an interesting book to read; some of the accounts of how people died are harrowing, and just as harrowing, if not more so, are the rescue operations of the park rangers who have an additional duty to try to retrieve human remains of canyon fatalities. . The authors try to be inclusive, listing by name and date of demise at the end of each section, the victims of that form of death. Many of the descriptions become repetitive, but as the books' aim is to be complete, (through 2011) that's understandable.

[Joe Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this book from the Grand Canyon gift shop as a souvenir and found it a quasi-interesting read. But -- holy cow -- it would have been a lot better if it were half or even a third as long. Stories that should be short anecdotes ramble on for page after page, the authors seemingly too in love with their own writing to know when to cut it short. I am a pretty quick and dedicated reader, but this book took me about six months to get through. By the end, it was only stubbornness that kept me from putting the book up on the shelf and calling it quits.

Also contributing to my low rating was the authors' extremely problematic and unenlightened views on mental illness. These views were on display most prominently in the chapter on suicides committed in Grand Canyon National Park. The authors repeatedly blame victims of suicide as narcissistic and self-centered. It was really disappointing, and made me wish I didn't live on the other side of the country -- otherwise I probably would have gone back to the gift shop and asked for my money back.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grand Canyon is a magnificent natural landmark. Situated almost entirely in the great state of Arizona, the Canyon is massive in scope. The colors are gorgeous, and the sheer immensity and scale of the canyon take your breath away. Unfortunately, the Grand Canyon is also extremely dangerous. Since its ‘discovery’ over 150 years ago, the Grand Canyon has aided over 700 people in leaving this mortal coil.

I have visited the Grand Canyon, and I was taken aback by several things. First of all, the scope of the Canyon itself, I cannot emphasize enough how huge this thing is. Secondly, I was surprised that there was a settlement right by it, allowing one to have hotel accommodations. Thirdly, I was never that good at geography in other states, so it was a bit colder than I thought it would be. Fourth, the squirrels are the most dangerous creatures in the park. Finally, a lot of the Canyon is open to just casually walk off the edge. In one sense I can understand this; with both the south rim and the north rim together, the Canyon would require a massive amount of steel. Also, that would not stop everyone from dying at the Canyon. If you build it, they will climb, right?

Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon covers this subject, not as an attempt to embarrass or entertain, but rather to inform and educate. Although it will never be a foolproof method, it is more economical than fencing the entire Canyon. The book is written by two veterans of Grand Canyon exploration, Michael P Ghiglieri, and Thomas M Myers. The book is exhaustive and is as comprehensive as possible. With a lot of the old records and scattered accounts, a majority of the book was researched as a cold case. The book is separated into chapters, with each chapter talking about a different place or method of death. It goes as follows, Death from Falls on the Rim, Death from Falls within the Canyon, Death from Exposure to the Elements, Death from Flash floods, Death from the Colorado River, Death from Plane Crashes or other Air Travel, Death from Freak Accidents, Death from the Flora and Fauna of the Canyon, Suicides, and finally, Murders.

The book contains a checklist to avoid danger, another checklist on what to bring with you and a number of maps and charts. So as with most dangerous places, the idea is to be prepared and respect the environment. I enjoyed this book a lot, even if the subject matter is rather gruesome. If you plan on going to the Grand Canyon, this book is pretty good. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-read, but it was quite informative and interesting.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh.My.Word!

I'm always looking for books when we travel, picking up local histories and maps and such. This turned out to be one of the best travel books we've ever gotten. Grim, yes, but amazing nonetheless.

After witnessing some incredibly stupid behavior while we were in Grand Canyon, behavior that thankfully did NOT result in a fatal fall, it was sobering to read about those who did fall and die. (or drown and die, or hike and die, or crash and die) There aren't alot of funny stories in this book, but there are an amazing number of well documented scenarios that should be required reading for anyone who wants to hike, raft, or even walk in Grand Canyon.

Most deaths from falls are either suicides, or a result of jumping from rock to rock or walking off the trail. People who crawl under the rail to sit with their feet dangling off the edge of a 4000 foot drop, seem to become dizzy and lose their balance when they try to stand up. The authors speculate that they have no "near" objects to give them spatial balance, and thus they overbalance and fall. Most hiking deaths are the result of not taking enough water, hiking alone and not telling anyone where you are going, taking short cuts, or ignoring clear advice or warning from signs and rangers. (take water, stay on the trail, hike in groups, don't overestimate your physical ability! LISTEN TO THE RANGERS and do what they say!)

A fascinating bit of history. The creation of the FAA came about because of a mid-air collision of two airliners over Grand Canyon in 1956. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Gr...
Visiting the overlook where the planes came down (on the east side of the canyon) was sobering and frightening.

Also interesting in this book are the perspectives shared by rangers in the park. After all, when someone is injured, they must be found and brought up out of the canyon for treatment. And when someone dies, their body must be retrieved. The mess and hassle of these search and rescue or search and retrieval endeavors is not for the squeamish. (note, when you fall 3000 to 4000 feet, you splatter like a watermelon)

An interesting sign in Grand Canyon lists that in the summer, over 600 people are assisted by the rangers. 150 are helicoptered out. We found out that the cost for being brought up by mule from the canyon floor was about $700. (called "a drag out") I wonder how much the cost is for a helicopter rescue?

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd already read Death In Yellowstone and had downloaded the Kindle preview for this book. I took a look it one afternoon and quickly purchased the entire book so I could finish it off. I've now managed to find a copy of the third book in this trilogy - Death In Yosemite - that will ship to Australia for a reasonable price, so I'm looking forward to reading that one too.

Books like this appeal to my interest in the morbid, and also in the assurance that mother nature is indifferent to us. If we are unprepared, then prepare to get in big trouble and possibly die.

It stunned me to learn that so many people decide to attempt the 20 or so mile, steep down then uphill hike from rim to rim during the middle of the day, in the middle of scorching summer, with only a small bottle of water and barely any other provisions - not even a hat! Maybe it's a symptom of living in Australia all my life, I won't even walk down the street without a hat on and a bottle of water and if the temperature tops 35 celcius I'm staying inside thankyouverymuch.

I did get the opportunity for a fleeting visit to Yellowstone and Yosemite when I was in the US a few years ago, but the Grand Canyon was just too far away. While reading this book however I've come to know the area quite well through the use of Google Earth, looking up landmarks, trails and places mentioned in the books to get an idea of the terrain.

Even though the "tables" (which just appear as a summary listing in the kindle edition) were a bit repetitive, I did find them a useful reminder of all the casualties of the varying ways to die. The authors are sometimes irreverant, but these guys have experienced a lot of these cases first hand and are understandably somewhat done with humanity.

Oddly, the beginning story of the murder chapter is overly long and rambling. While still a fascinating part of history of the area, a good chunk of the tale was irrelevant to the aim of the book, I assume this part of history must have been the author's specific interest. On the whole I found the murder chapter much more interesting than that in the Yellowstone book, which was easily the most boring segment of that whole book.

If you're planning a trip to the Canyon and are unfamiliar with the area, I recommend reading this before you go - it could save your life.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotable:

[P]osing for or taking photographs account for 6 and 4 victims (20 percent) of the 50 total victims of accidental lethal falls from the rim.



Another fatal factor is nightfall. Six other victims – five of them males – fell at night while camping or walking alone. A possible culprit in many of these fatalities may be the male urge to urinate off high places combined with dizziness (and possibly alcohol consumption). Other male victims likely have fallen to their deaths from heights within the Canyon or into the river to drown, while urinating.



As Canyon hiking expert and author George Steck puts it, “A solo hiker often has a fool for a companion.”



[Charles] Myers’ decision to shortcut as established Canyon route was virtually a cookie-cut fatal error, a signature error made by the majority of young, solo male hikers in the Canyon who have ended up dying from Inner Canyon falls and/or dehydration and heat stroke. Shortcutting is the mother of all hiking errors.



Bert Loper’s own words still ring down to us from his diary written while he was leading the 1922 U.S. Geological Survey trip down the Green River. Indeed, Loper’s words comprise the most succinct explanation for most boatmen’s decisions today to keep running the river. Right after portaging Hell’s Half Mile in Lodore Canyon, Loper wrote, “Who in the hell wants to be a white collar sissy when one can enjoy such grandeur and beauty such as this?”



[M]ishaps are so common and so commonly lethal that unsuccessfully attempting to fly over the Canyon has killed more people than have died by drowning in the river, by falling off cliffs within the Canyon or from its rims, by being killed by flash floods, and by dying from heat combined. The airspace over the Grand Canyon region may be one of the most dangerous peacetime airspaces in the world.

[Katlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! I made my first visit to GC in October of 2023. My husband is afraid of heights and found the wildness of it too scary with our small children. After a very brief visit and no hiking down into the canyon, I knew I had to return, sans family. (My kids will return with me one day, when they’re older!) One of my good friends accompanied me back to GC in December of 2023 and we hiked part of the South Kaibab trail, and had so much fun and a sense of accomplishment and adventure. All of this to say, I have a newfound obsession with GC and devoured this book. My friend and I, along with her husband and another friend, have entered into the lottery to return in 2025 to hike down to Phantom Ranch. It’s not only an interesting book, but a very helpful one to know what avoid that others have sadly, not. It’s a heavy read given the subject matter, but it is written in a very interesting and engaging way. I enjoyed reading it after I had been to GC a couple of times, as I knew a few of the spots they were talking about throughout the book. Highly recommend this book- and go to GC!!

[Laura Ruetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating read. It never delved into becoming morbid or graphic. The book is an accounting of how deadly the Grand Canyon has been over the years. Each death reads like an historical account, and goes into the reasons of the tragedy.

Anybody who has seen the Grand Canyon knows the awestruck viewpoint of looking out across the rim. This is a fascinating look at the Canyon itself and what makes it so deadly. The facts of the incidents are clearly stated as well as what factors played into it.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm strangely attracted to reading books about deaths in national parks. This is my second, and I have a whole list of others I want to read. It's also strange that these books entice me to want to visit national parks I hadn't considered traveling to previously. It's mostly a warning about respecting the wilderness and using common sense. This particular book was well written and enhanced by the two author's experience in the Grand Canyon

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been to the Grand Canyon twice and I am glad I read this book AFTER I got back. I did not realize how dangerous it is there. I can't believe anyone would hike there in summer during the monsoon season as its just too dangerous. I read about some very expert hikers who died.

Those who want to hike during the monsoon should read about The Big Thompson.

[KathyNV · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for everyone entering the Grand Canyon! From Boy Scouts to elite athletes no one should be exempt. It’s an eye opener. Fascinating, funny and chilling…a well documented history of death in the canyon. I never knew there were so many ways to shorten a vacation…Wow! Be prepared, read this!!

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combines a good travel book with a Grand-Canyon-specific "Darwin Awards." Incredibly long list of people who have found out for themselves just how many ways things can go badly wrong when you're travelling in a place that combines desert, high places to drop off of, and white water.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every known fatality in the Grand Canyon, up until 2017. Having just visited both the north and south rims, I expect there will be an updated edition in a few years. The stupidity I witnessed is astounding! As the authors state at the end of each chapter, the great majority of deaths are due to human recklessness and stupidity, and usually happen to men. After reading every single chapter of this book (except for the one on plane crashes), I have a great respect for the bravery and skill of the NPS Search and Rescue teams. They have saved countless lives since the establishment of Grand Canyon as a national park, and sadly, will be called upon to continue doing so. Excellent, thorough reporting by the authors.