A Bolt from the Blue: The Epic True Story of Danger, Daring, and Heroism at 13,000 Feet

by Jennifer Woodlief

FIVE INJURED CLIMBERS. TEN SEASONED RANGERS. ONE IMPOSSIBLE RESCUE.On the afternoon of July 26, 2003, six vacationing mountain climbers ascended the peak of the Grand Teton in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Rain and colliding air currents blew in, and soon a massive electrical charge began to build. As the group began to retreat from its location, a colossal lightning bolt struck and pounded through the body of every climber. One of the six died instantly, one lay critically injured next to her body, and four dangled perilously into the chasm below. In riveting, page-turning prose, veteran journalist Jennifer Woodlief tells the story of the climb, the arrival of the storm, and the unprecedented rescue by the Jenny Lake Rangers, one of the most experienced climbing search-and-rescue teams in the country. Against the dramatic landscape of the Teton Range, Woodlief brings to life the grueling task of the rangers, a band of colorful characters who tackle one of the riskiest, most physically demanding jobs in the world. By turns terrifying and exhilarating, A Bolt from the Blue is both a testament to human courage and an astonishing journey into one of history’s most dangerous mountain rescues.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adventure, Outdoors, Nature, History, Biography, Wilderness

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 2012

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do national park rangers fare in high-altitude, high-risk situations? How do readers fare when a good story suffers from poor writing? ‘A Bolt from the Blue’ by Jennifer Woodlief answers these questions and more.
‘A Bolt from the Blue: The Epic True Story of Danger, Daring, and Heroism at 13,000 Feet’(a name which will not be said in full again) by Jennifer Woodlief is a pretty self-explanatory book, thanks to its enormous title. It tells the story of a true event in 2003 where a team(The Jenny Lake Rangers) on Grand Teton in Jackson Hole, Wyoming had to save a group of mountain climbers during a storm. It showed what happened to the climbers(some situations described can be a bit graphic at times), and how the rangers responded to the situation.
Unfortunately, while the action is exciting and the facts are interesting, this book has some pacing and over-explanation issues. Take the entire chapter discussing basically the entire life story of Renny(one of the main rangers) early on in the book. It’s fine and important to talk a little bit about each character’s backstory and how they got there, but cutting up the action to spend entire chapters explaining a character’s life story can be extremely annoying and makes the early parts of the book a drag to read. It also does a similar, albeit less long thing with explaining some natural phenomena, which is a bit more interesting. It is, however, nearly inexcusable to pause a life-or-death situation to share a cookie recipe. The book would be much shorter if it wasn’t for the filler.
That being said, the actual story is enticing and leaves you wanting more information. Discussion of the aerial tactics used to rescue the climbers is interesting. The teamwork exhibited by the team of rangers is nothing short of inspiring. The Jenny Lake Rangers are certainly a group who have earned their respect within their community. It impresses me how some of those climbers survived.
In conclusion, ‘A Bolt from the Blue,’ while an interesting story in of itself, suffers from overall below average writing. I’d recommend giving it a shot, but don’t be surprised if you find you just can’t be bothered to continue reading.

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is so much unnecessary filler in this book that it actually includes a cookie recipe. Good grief!

[Jessica Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book during my trip to the Grand Teton NP after learning about the Jenny Lake Rangers and some of the amazing rescues they have made. I was excited to read this story: Six climbers rescued from the Grand after a lightning strike blew them off the mountain just before the summit. In a race against time and the elements, the Jenny Lake Rangers pulled off an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime rescue.

This book should have been full of suspense, but the truth is that this incredible story is marred by terrible writing. I started and stopped reading this book several times over the course of about six months, and I put it down every time because the author diverts from the narrative and drifts into backstory much too often. It really kills the pace of the story. I found myself skipping over much of it just so I could get back to the main narrative. I didn't mind the backstory so much in the beginning, because I found much of the technical exposition to be interesting and relevant, and I didn't mind reading about the climber's backgrounds once the narrative begins leading up to the actual event. However, it was very jarring to be in the midst of a rescuer climbing down to assess an injured person hanging from a rope over hundreds of feet of open air and then suddenly have the story shift to this rescuer's background. It felt like very patchwork writing.

In all, the story is excellent if you can get beyond the writing. The Jenny Lake Rangers are an amazing group of professionals and what they achieved in this rescue is a testament to their training, dedication, and love for what they do.

[Rachel Halliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving this one 3 stars because the writing was not great. The story was amazing and should have kept you on the edge of your seat, but that was interrupted by filler pages of unnecessary details and weird transitions (ie- jumping from past to present without any warning or indication). Overall, it was a thrill to learn about the 6 climbers that were struck by lightning and the rescue mission to save them, but the writing style put a damper on that.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read about halfway through this book before I gave up. It did contain quite a bit of interesting information about the different methods used to get rescuers to injured people by helicopter in emergency situations. However, I kept feeling that all the information about the "how" of the rescue, going back in time to see how the rescuers were trained, etc., was padding because the author didn't have enough story to tell with the main event--the rescue itself after the lightning strike. That may be far from the truth, but her constant jumps in every chapter to the point that we spent almost no time with the climbers in the first 115 pages made it easy to put the book down. I just didn't care what happened to these people because I didn't know them yet.

Also, there was so much sexism! If the author mentioned "male bonding" or a "boys' club" once, she mentioned it a hundred times. One rescuer planned his climbs around "the three Ws--work, weather, and women." When we finally met the new climbing party, she needed to assure us that the nine men were pleasantly surprised at the ability of the two women, even though we previously heard that one of the women met her husband (the trip leader) climbing and was a better technical climber than he was! I don't expect every book written by a woman to be a feminist treatise, but I do expect a book written in 2012 not to patronize women and cater to the idea that women are an unusual category of person, an exception to the norm, rather than half of humanity and a significant part of the climbing community. To suggest otherwise is simply backward.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some interesting material near the end,
but the author took a 50 page story and crammed in a lot of unimportant material to pad the book.
He also jumped around a lot,
a little about the accident,
then a lot about the personal lives of the various people.

Their personal lives were uninteresting,
they were a bunch of average people who just happened to come together that day.

This story had a lot of personal meaning for me tho,
I used to climb a lot, and have been on high peaks when lightening
struck. Lucky for me, always in the distance.

Also, I climbed this route on Grand Teton,
as I read the story I remembered the beautiful day
we climbed the route with all the named parts.
Wall street, the friction pitch etc

Did it with one of my favorite partners
George of Saint Louis park, Minneapolis.

We've been out of touch for some time,
hope you read this book George.

[Marit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ben read this book in the airplane on our trip to MN. I read about a third of it over his shoulder. The writing seemed very technical and the author tended to verge into random back-stories and explanations.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Human beings are so inspiring with their willingness to help others and also willingness to live. This book did feel a little fluffy, with a lot of descriptions of things that felt out of place, particularly once the rescue was well underway — I don’t exactly want to read about someone’s climbing history while they’re doing a rescue. This is a neat story though about survival and the dangers of outdoor recreation, a little didactic in terms of outdoorsiness and etiquette.

[Skylar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story has so many forks and tangents it resembles a lightning bolt 😂

[Kelli Kane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story - extreme outdoor adventure, unforeseen tragedy and all the details of an epic rescue. Gave it 4 stars because the writing itself isn’t the best, but the story is incredible. Thanks for the book Amy Kyle!

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very nice book about an event that I had heard about in the news, so it was nice to see a book based on it. I've always had an interest in mountaineering, and reading about it is always interesting to me. I learned a lot about the state of the art in helicopter rescue and the Jenny Lake Rangers. I thought the book was a great blend of documentary and story-telling.

[Janette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This type of writing, where the author bounces back and forth between the present and the past, is tedious to read. Especially when the author doesn't provide a clear transition. I think the back story should have been given in the beginning and the rescue covered in the remainder of the book. I'm glad it's over.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew this story very well as my high school fried and his family were the climbers involved in this story. It was neat to read the details from the perspective of the rescuers.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing story. Sad, but amazing too. The book is not at all well written, but the story speaks for itself.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

exceptional!

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story, interesting facts, great detail of events. The the writing was, eh?

[Indy Kochte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this story 5*s. I really really did. The story is epic, and worthy of being told in its detail. But as so many others had mentioned, the temporal shifts in the writing style just did not work for me.

Having climbed the Grand twice back in the 1990s (using Renny's and Leigh Ortenburger's climbing guide), I was able to readily picture where everything was happening, and more easily put myself in there with the rescuers and rescuees. Having in subsequent years become a Wilderness First Responder, I could very much understand the details of the rescue and procedures employed by the rangers to deal with their patients. The only thing I lacked in my background was helicopter experience. :-D

Pros: epic story, great background detail on all those involved, making them more than just some characters or names on a page. Lot of detail to explain to the layperson how certain things worked (such as flight of helicopters, the grading system climbers use to rate difficulty of climbs, etc) to put things in perspective. Lots of detail on the climbing and rescue itself.

Cons: Way much of detail, far too much detail in a number of cases. Repeating information that was already given earlier about some of the people involved. Repeatedly repeating how difficult and challenging and harrowing this rescue was. Constant use of dramatic flair when talking about a person and their expectations and then ending the paragraph(s) with the "but it wouldn't turn out that way" type narrative. LOTS of hero worship. Yes, the Jenny Lake rangers are heroes, and this was their shining pinnacle moment. TOTALLY get that. But the author seemed to keep brow-beating the reader about how great and fantastic the rangers were. Repeatedly telling us how things aligned just perfectly for the rescue to be pulled off, to avert catastrophe from tragedy. Halfway through the book I was starting to wonder if she truly had that much hero worship for them, or if she was trying to fill pages (then on the last page, in her acknowledgements, the author thanked one of her daughters for "merciless calculations of how many pages I had yet to write..."; that kinda clinched it for me). And finally the temporal shifts from present to past to present to past to present with the people involved, something that many others have already noted in their reviews.

Keeping everything in the book as it is, a help to the narrative might be instead to talk about the backgrounds of ALL those involved first (climbers and rangers), let us just get to know them. THEN push the climbers onto the mountain, blast them with the storm, and let the tension linger for a bit as they try to recover and understand what the heck just happened. THEN follow the rangers as the call for help went out. Most of the aftermath of the rescue could be left untouched to wrap the story up.

But this was the author's choice on how to tell the story. I'm just providing some feedback. I do applaud the author for her effort and work at getting all the details, doing all the interviews to make sure she got those details right. I just wish the pros list far outweighed the cons list above so I could have given this 5*. Still, I'm not going to give the book away. It'll reside on the bookshelf with the rest of my climbing books. I'll probably pick it up again some years hence to reread the tale.

[Ashley Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly have a healthy dose of respect for nature but...damn lightening...you scary.



So a group of climbers decided to go on a climbing trip with each other and climb the Grand Teton - which was evidently not outside of anyone's range of climbing ability despite a couple of beginner climbers. And it certainly appears they would have reached the summit had tragedy not struck (no pun intended).

The mountain was PACKED that day to the point of them sitting around and waiting for the climbers ahead of them to finish their climb before they could continue upward. So loooots of people on this mountain.

And then lightening was like..."F*** these people in particular."

Entered directly into one climber in the party, killing her instantly, jumped to her husband who was sitting next to her, and then traveled down the rope and got to the climbers on the side of the mountain. Touched everyone in the group.

I found the story very interesting and enjoyed the backstory behind the climbers and the rescuers as well. This book was written a bit on the technical side, but that is perfect for me since I soak facts up like an addict.

I'm sure my boyfriend will get mad at me later when I talk for too long about how lightening works....

[Barbara Williford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Jennifer with a group of ladies at a trail head in Idaho the Summer of 2024. They welcomed me on their hike and were amazing and inspiring women. Jennifer told me she wrote a book about her sister being struck by lightning in a freak accident while on a summit of the Grand Teton mountain. At the time, that was the only lightning fatality in the park’s history. This book is about that story and the amazing rescue by the park rangers that was nothing short of a miracle. I knew the rangers were the best of the best and their training exceeded that of the military but I’m completely in awe of this rescue and their abilities. This is definitely a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

On the evening of July 26, 2003, the short-haul maneuver was used a total of 13 times—to extract seven patients and to insert six rescuers. The Jenny Lake climbing rangers are real-life rescue heroes, men whose office supplies are stashes of ropes, ice axes, and helmets. They are team members of the most elite and experienced climbing search-and-rescue team in the country, trained not just in technical climbing but also in altitude rescue—emergency medical care, setting anchors, raising systems, patient packaging, and high-risk helicopter operations.

They handled a mass-casualty incident at extreme altitude in vertical terrain with unsettled weather and only five hours of daylight amd this is their story.

[Tracy Krout-Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just visited GTNP a month ago, I was in awe at what the Jenny Rangers accomplished. I recognized all the references to locations I had just seen (minus the ones on the mountain), and could picture the rescue as it played out. In fact, I presume my family and I got to watch one of the Jenny Ranger practices as we watched an empty litter being lifted by helicopter between GTNP & Yellowstone on the day we transversed the parks. I will say the list of “characters” and map of the mountain were most useful. And although I appreciate all the detailed information, sometimes the story got muddled down with pages of info about things such as the study of lightning or how to rate the difficulty of a climb. I enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone looking for stories of true heroism.

[Barbara Williford · Rating 5 out of 5]

a MUST read


On the evening of July 26, 2003, the short-haul maneuver was used a total of 13 times—to extract seven patients and to insert six rescuers. The Jenny Lake climbing rangers are real-life rescue heroes, men whose office supplies are stashes of ropes, ice axes, and helmets. They are team members of the most elite and experienced climbing search-and-rescue team in the country, trained not just in technical climbing but also in altitude rescue—emergency medical care, setting anchors, raising systems, patient packaging, and high-risk helicopter operations.

They handled a mass-casualty incident at extreme altitude in vertical terrain with unsettled weather and only five hours of daylight amd this is their story.

[Corinne Schroeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not crying, you're crying 😭. What a powerful book. I respect the hell out of these rangers. The ever important reminder: be humble in the mountains and hopefully bad luck won't find you.

Admittedly, the action and pace doesn't quicken until almost halfway through. The first half is all set-up mostly with tons of details about helicopters, climbing gear, and the background of the climbers. Odd amount of spelling mistakes and place mistakes, so if you pay attention you won't be confused.

Ultimately 5 stars because it's a true feat of human will to save this climbing party.

[Keri Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is incredible

I loved this book. Reading about the people who work and live in our national parks is fascinating to me, but this book is special. The real people in this book jump off the page thanks to this author’s gifted writing - and obvious deep research. Thank you to the Jenny Lake Rangers for doing what you do, and to all the people in the book who opened their lives for us, the readers. Thank you, Jennifer for the 2 years you spent researching and writing this book. It has moved, informed, and changed me.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool story to read about. The author does a great job explaining what everything is and how the extrication process would take place. As a medical professional and outdoor enthusiast, some of the descriptions and explanations just felt like fluff. The author does a great job of humanizing the characters. I laughed a bit, got teary eyed, and could visualize the injuries as she described them. Overall a decent book telling a fascinations rescue story.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have like it better if the back story about everyone could have been told at the beginning instead of breaking off during the rescue to tell about so and so's learning how to climb escapades. Would have really liked to dive more into the issues that each climber had and what the lightening did. And then go into how each climber was rescued more so about the inverted man. Good overall read though.

[James Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully=written tense account of a terrible climbing accident on grand Teton and the daring rescue enacted by the Jenny Lake Rangers. Absorbing and terrifying race against time keeps the narrative moving along like a thriller. really remarkable heroism and bravery in the face of adversity. Wonderful book.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I found out about this story through a podcast National Park After Dark. I wanted to learn more about this story and I didn’t really learn anything new. This book was more focused on the Jenny Rangers perspective and the rescue of the 13 person group was sprinkled throughout.

[Victoria Hosman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially heard about this book from a podcast (National Park After Dark). And when I went to Grand Teton Natl Park, I saw this in the gift shop and bought it.

This book really focuses on the capabilities of the Jenny Lake Rangers. It has details about the rescue itself, the Rangers, and details about climbing in general.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this book while visiting Grand Teton National Park. The rescue was exciting to read. There is a lot of backstories which I thought why people can into the profession. and why people like to climb. The book was easy to read and the last chapters about the rescue I had to read in one sitting which I normally don't do.