Miscalculated Risks: Attacked, Crippled, Paralyzed, Drowning, Unconscious and Freezing in The Wild

by Michael Cooper

In its action-packed, often-comical pages, Miscalculated Risks recounts how Cooper’s increasingly dangerous ventures far into wilderness landed him in dire situations: Mortally wounded in a Mexican jungle, twenty roadless miles from the nearest medical facility. Half-drowned and severely hypothermic on an isolated Oregon river, shooting sixty-nine miles of rapids during a weeklong blizzard. Deathly sick and out of water in sun-scorched desert . . .

Retelling the near-fatal adventures in Cooper’s own words, Miscalculated Risks introduces a mix of unforgettable characters: The superhuman mill worker and the ADHD-tormented tax assessor, Cooper’s quirky cohorts on over thirty mountaineering ascents. And the charismatic hippie, offbeat national park ranger and reckless journalist who join Cooper on thirteen daring expeditions on foot through five trackless deserts—including to places where nobody in recorded history had gone before.

358 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 13, 2025

About the author

A wilderness adventurer, mountaineer and backcountry navigator, Michael Cooper has explored over 8,000 miles of wild country—including places where nobody in recorded history had gone before. His memoir chronicling his many near-fatal expeditions, Miscalculated Risks: Attacked, Crippled, Paralyzed, Drowning, Unconscious and Freezing in The Wild (Just Not All at Once), was recently announced a Winner in the 2025 American Writing Awards for Best New (Debut) Non-Fiction and selected the Winner of the Literary Global Book Awards for Narrative Nonfiction. Cooper is one of only a handful of "2026 Featured Authors" highlighted on the American Writing Awards' website. He was selected for a juried show presented by the Oregon Historical Society in December, 2025. Miscalculated Risks has been #1 in sales of all print books in the SPORTS & RECREATION / Extreme Sports category since the book was launched, according to IngramSpark's Global Distribution Network.

Leading literary critics have heaped glowing praise on Miscalculated Risks. Midwest Book Review says Miscalculated Risks is "an outdoors adventure memoir packed with hair-raising encounters, gripping moments of life-or-death, and confrontations with nature that will leave readers on the edges of their seats" and is "nothing short of remarkable." Kirkus Reviews says, "The wilderness comes alive on the page in this (literal) trailblazer's memoir. . . . Cooper portrays his adventures in immersive detail. His descriptions of his experiences in untouched areas are lyrical. . . . OUR VERDICT: GET IT."

Cooper is also widely known as a recording engineer and producer, having worked with Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt, ABC World News anchor Barry Serafin, and Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Ashley Cleveland. A noted authority on music production and sound for film, Michael Cooper’s journalism has appeared over 500 times in seven pro-audio magazines and Wired. He has served as Contributing Editor for the recording industry’s preeminent magazine, Mix, since 1996 and composed music for feature-length film. Michael Cooper lives with his wife in Central Oregon.

To view documentary photos and video of Michael Cooper’s wilderness expeditions, go to Michael Cooper Adventurer.

Reviews

[Sharon Sparrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great book about outdoor adventures and many of the hazards associated with them. I live in Central Oregon, as does the author, and I have hiked in some of the areas that are described in the book. This helps make the stories more relatable. If you are a fan of Edward Abbey, Tim Cahill or Kevin Fedarko, give this book a try.

[Mitchell C · Rating 5 out of 5]

With vivid imagery and brilliant detail, the author paints an edge-of-your-front-row-seat picture of both the magnetic beauty and looming peril of remote wild places. As someone who loves the outdoors, I highly recommend Mis-Calculated Risks as a must read for a wide-ranging audience – adventurers, nature-lovers, thrill-seekers, hikers, climbers, backpackers, white-water rafters, or anyone else who ever thought about what it might be like to visit desolate or remote places. This captivating memoir took me there.

[Dee Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael’s story is not only inspiring but also entertaining and educational. There is much to be learned and insight gained. Risk vs reward

[Greg Zadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible read from start to finish. Gripping tales of adventure, beauty and solitude and our need to disconnect from the busyness of life seem all the more important right now. Michael Cooper’s ability to capture the grandeur, the harshness and the importance of so much of our country’s wilderness is a testament to his writing. His path of discovery and adversity was a strong call out for me to start making my own plans for my next venture into the wilderness.

[Kim Hapke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took some time to read this book and am glad I savored it. So many adventures and close calls! Though the risks were impressive, what stuck with me the most were the tangible descriptions of remote places. The parts about the growing wildfire impacts over the years by someone who had been to so many of the places affected, really brought home how precious and fragile these wild places are.

[Marta Van Patten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miscalculated Risks will draw you in. It's not just Michael's close calls with death, which are gripping, but the sensitive and thoughtful descriptions of our natural world; descriptions that seems to be more and more rare these days. While our devices continuously beckon, with their lure of artificial, virtual realities, this book celebrates and cherishes what is still discoverable in wide open spaces – the ongoing agitation, hang ups, and wildness of our own minds, that eventually give way to realizations, stillness, and calm understanding about ourselves and the world around us.

[Anne Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I could not stop reading this book! It's astounding! It drew right me in and transported me to another place and time. I felt like I was right there gazing at remote, mind-blowing vistas. What an engaging story teller! It made we wish I knew the characters personally, and get included in all the laughs and camaraderie. The miscalculations he describes struck home with me and will with anybody who's been out in the wild even if they didn't have harrowing escapes like he did. Considering the intense physical challenges and multiple mishaps this brave man faced, his steadfast courage and incredible endurance ultimately ensured his survival. I admire his complex decision-making in moments of perilous situations that exemplify his acumen as a superior outdoor adventurer. I loved his lyrical, descriptive passages expounding on the wondrous and magnificent grandeur of our amazing planet. I think that during our short lifetime here on Earth, only a few of us, such as Michael Cooper, have had the honor to witness such extraordinarily spectacular destinations and experience what I believe is a transformative soulful unity with what I call the "Nature of God."

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This non-fiction adventure book is incredibly well written. Keeps you entertained from start to
finish. Thank you Mr Cooper.

[Katherine L · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simply extraordinary. An intrepid adventurer Michael Cooper writes about his obsessive passion to explore the natural world. It's mountains, deserts, jungles,and rivers. Over and over he walks the delicate balance between life and death. Sometimes slipping over the edge... For us more timid souls, it's an almost voyeuristic glimpse of life lived with tremendous courage and at at times blind stupidity. Cooper unsparingly reveals the miscalculated risks he took with humility and humor. I found it thrilling sometimes disturbing but always fascinating. It"s a miracle he is still alive. Lucky for us cause this book is better than fiction.

[Edward Greenwald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who dreams of spending more time outdoors will enjoy this memoir of falling in love with wilderness — and finding out what a harsh mistress she can be.

From a near-deadly scorpion sting on the remote island of Yelapa to impending heat stroke amid the trackless cliffs of Zion National Park, Michael Cooper puts you right in the middle of the action.

OK, so I'm biased. I was there for some of these episodes — the initial enthusiasm, the meticulous planning, the terrifying misadventure, the narrow escape, and the subsequent surrender to risking it all once again for just another shot at experiencing the natural world in its elemental state — and I can testify that these pages describe them all their harrowing, awesome, hilarious, poignant realness.

Cooper (a.k.a. Virgin Marty in the backcountry) is an extraordinary writer as well as a highly skilled and passionate outdoorsman, and he captures the thrills, spills, and grandeur of his adventures in vivid, entertaining, moving prose.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. He describes exactly what I feel in this love letter to wild places. Miscalculated Risks is an exhilarating odyssey penned so expertly that you feel you are there: at night, at a no-named lake perched cliff-edge with the Milky Way reflected brilliantly at your feet, civilization a thousand miles away. His story is poetic inspiration for us all to embrace life with gusto.

[Diane Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite the collection of adventures!

[Bruce Schumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Cooper’s Miscalculated Risks was amazing – my favorite read in many a year, and so much more than I had anticipated. I bought the book because of its promise to take me places – to remote, pristine tracts of untrammeled wilderness – that I longed to hear about and have depicted for me. Miscalculated Risks delivered that for me, in abundance, and with that alone I would consider the book a must-read for anyone who finds their solace in such settings.

But also, belied by its somewhat whimsical cover, Miscalculated Risks took me to deep and unexpected spiritual corners that attach to the demands, and inevitable turns of fortune, of life in the wilds. Cooper’s book evokes the timeless, immortal spirit that infuses the soul of the remote wilderness traveler, in a way that reflects back into unique perspectives about all of our lives in the modern world. Cooper’s wonderful prose describes how his one-of-a-kind experiences in the wildlands of North America reflect upon the very basic human connectivity between friends, family, and perhaps most importantly, upon our primordial connection to the mother of us all, the stunningly beautiful and precious planet on which we all live. I think anyone who picks up this book will find much to take away from it, and perhaps also feel, as I did, a touch of sadness as I turned its final page.

[Bonnie Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a avid reader, this high action memoir is at the top of my list of best books in 2025. Michael Cooper tells his tales of unimaginable ventures into the "off-trail" of many wilderness landscapes, deep woods, mountains, rock formations and waterways that sometimes became a rescue mission for himself and the men and women with whom he journeyed year after year. Those mishaps never deterred him and his varied companions to get out and do it again.
His ability to write of these adventures in rich detail of landscape, plant life and locations sometimes makes you feel like you're tracking along--until the demands of the trail or lack of become more threat than pleasure. Circumstances that would make most of us punt. Not these guys. Not the author. Yet you don't have to be an outdoors recreation addict to grasp the wonders of his journeys, a view into magical geographic regions most of us will never experience.
I can't recommend a book more highly. It is one of the rare books that I may start again immediately. It's that good.

[Fred Rafilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miscalculated Risks was a big hit with our Guys Book Night. The story is fast-paced, gripping, and genuinely nerve-wracking in all the right ways. It sparked lively discussion, debate, and more than a few “did that really just happen?” moments—always the mark of a great read.

What really stood out was how candid and reflective the storytelling felt. The author doesn’t shy away from mistakes or hard lessons, which made the book both entertaining and thought-provoking. It’s rare to find an adventure story that’s this exciting while also being so honest and self-aware.

One of our toughest critics summed it up best: “This was our best Guys Book Night ever.” That’s high praise—and well deserved.

[GBH · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has crafted a genuine page-turner with this memoir of his hair raising, epic treks into the wilderness over many decades. As gripping as the many “will he make it?” moments are, equally compelling is his relentless curiosity and overwhelming love of the the natural world. Highly recommended!

[Dave Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this awesome book. It was a pleasure to read about this collection of some of his most exciting stories. Mr. Cooper’s compelling writing style is somewhat reminiscent of some of Jon Krakauer’s better books in my opinion.