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The White Death: Tragedy and Heroism in an Avalanche Zone
In 1969, five young men from Montana set out to accomplish what no one had to scale the sheer north face of Mt. Cleveland, Glacier National Park's tallest mountain, in winter. Two days later tragedy they were buried in an avalanche so deep that their bodies would not be discovered until the following June. The White Death is the riveting account of that fated climb and of the breathtakingly heroic rescue attempt that ensued.
In the spirit of Peter Matthiessen and John McPhee, McKay Jenkins interweaves a harrowing narrative with an astonishing expanse of relevant knowledge ranging from the history of mountain climbing to the science of snow. Evocative and moving, this fascinating book is a humbling account of man at his most intrepid and nature at its most indomitable.
In the spirit of Peter Matthiessen and John McPhee, McKay Jenkins interweaves a harrowing narrative with an astonishing expanse of relevant knowledge ranging from the history of mountain climbing to the science of snow. Evocative and moving, this fascinating book is a humbling account of man at his most intrepid and nature at its most indomitable.
256 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 30, 2012
I actually got this book by accident. I meant to order the book The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis by Thomas Dormandy. Unsurprisingly, I put this book aside and ignored it for a few years to punish it for not being the book I wanted to read. Finally, running out of unread material, I rescued it from oblivion and took it with me as my in-flight read last month. And, apart from a couple of chapters that absolutely DARE you to skip them, it was a pretty interesting read.
The story centers on a group of mountaineering friends who, like all young men, think they're invincible. In December 1969, they attempt to do something that had never been done before: climb Mt. Cleveland in Montana's Glacier National Park in wintertime. Well, the reason it had never been done before is because the geography of Mt. Cleveland makes it an ideal avalanche zone. And I think you can probably guess from the title what happens.
The biography of each climber and the story of that fateful final climb is stretched out over the course of the book, intermingled with some interesting historical accounts of avalanche death (for example, it discusses how explosives were deliberately detonated in mountains above troop positions during World War I in order to cause deadly avalanches), and some less-than-interesting detailed analysis of various types of snow and what makes certain types of snow more conducive to avalanches than others. Although I guess some of that stuff was kinda interesting: whenever we get snow that doesn't stick together at all, I know to call it "sugar snow" and I know that a layer of sugar snow that is later covered over by additional snowfall is called "depth hoar" and is the ultimate avalanche-inducing nightmare for anyone journeying through the mountains. But the author does go a bit too far in discussing the technical details of snow. I admit one chapter was nearly skipped in its entirety.
Still, this is a very good read for anyone interested in mountain tragedy. (And who isn't?) Not as good as "Into Thin Air," the masterpiece of this genre, but pretty interesting nonetheless.
The story centers on a group of mountaineering friends who, like all young men, think they're invincible. In December 1969, they attempt to do something that had never been done before: climb Mt. Cleveland in Montana's Glacier National Park in wintertime. Well, the reason it had never been done before is because the geography of Mt. Cleveland makes it an ideal avalanche zone. And I think you can probably guess from the title what happens.
The biography of each climber and the story of that fateful final climb is stretched out over the course of the book, intermingled with some interesting historical accounts of avalanche death (for example, it discusses how explosives were deliberately detonated in mountains above troop positions during World War I in order to cause deadly avalanches), and some less-than-interesting detailed analysis of various types of snow and what makes certain types of snow more conducive to avalanches than others. Although I guess some of that stuff was kinda interesting: whenever we get snow that doesn't stick together at all, I know to call it "sugar snow" and I know that a layer of sugar snow that is later covered over by additional snowfall is called "depth hoar" and is the ultimate avalanche-inducing nightmare for anyone journeying through the mountains. But the author does go a bit too far in discussing the technical details of snow. I admit one chapter was nearly skipped in its entirety.
Still, this is a very good read for anyone interested in mountain tragedy. (And who isn't?) Not as good as "Into Thin Air," the masterpiece of this genre, but pretty interesting nonetheless.
August 3, 2011
Reminiscent of Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, and Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson, McKay Jenkins' The White Death is a gripping tale of a star-crossed climbing family, as well as an informative study of mountains, the nature of snow and avalanches. Tragic and poignant.
December 10, 2011
Just plain sad.
July 10, 2020
Absolutely incredibly written book with well-researched facts about snow, avalanches, mountaineering, skiing, and outdoor sporting as it’s developed in the last century from other more somber war-time training requiring these technical, tactical skills. Woven into the compelling history of snow sports and mountaineering is the true tale of this horrific tragedy on Mount Cleveland in Glacier Park. The five lives are documented in such a way as to make the reader feel like he or she is personally acquainted with each young man, and we grieve their loss fifty years later as though they were our sons and brothers too. Personally intriguing for me is the fact that the rescue helicopter pilot is my grandmother’s cousin, and I had a chance to meet him for the first time just a few weeks ago. How glad I am that his daughter showed me this book lying on his coffee table, and how glad I am to have added it to my library!!
September 19, 2019
There’s a decent story here, probably enough for a really great article. The rest of the book is filled with tangents about avalanches, mountaineering, rescuing, etc. those were interesting enough, but the way they were used to stretch out the telling of the story really irritated me. Usually I don’t mind this technique too Much, but the tangents were so long and interspersed with so little of the story, that I found myself constantly wanting to just know what happens in the story already. Instead of a story interspersed with interesting side notes, it was a book about mountains, avalanches, and climbing that was adorned with a story. Anyway, cool story, inspiring people, nice wrap up too. But too much filler for me.
October 31, 2024
Parts were very interesting - avalanche history, snow science and mountaineering anecdotes, and parts felt very fluffy. This book is well written in some sections and overwritten in other places. Some of the sentences use overly flowery language at the expense of clarity. Despite the gravity of the accident, the narrator's hyperbolic attempt to pull the heartstrings came off as cheesy.
While I enjoyed most of the anecdotes there is an imbalance between them and the actual contents of the story. Like with Moby Dick, there's a switch between tragic story and history/science, but it often takes from the story itself and seems like an effort to up the word count.
Interesting but I'm very grateful to be finished and will not read again.
While I enjoyed most of the anecdotes there is an imbalance between them and the actual contents of the story. Like with Moby Dick, there's a switch between tragic story and history/science, but it often takes from the story itself and seems like an effort to up the word count.
Interesting but I'm very grateful to be finished and will not read again.
June 6, 2019
While I was really interested in the topic this was not an easy book to read. There were just too many narratives and the stories that were trying to designed to be a thread through the book just were not able to hold things together. Which is pretty sad, because there are a lot of stories in this book that people need to remember.
February 24, 2020
Super interesting analogies and side stories. I only gave 4 stars because in my opinion/understanding some of the snow science stuff lacked some accuracy and I feel like this was written based off interviews with experts, as opposed to by a real expert and some info was lost in translation to opinion/storytelling. Overall, very cool book that really makes you think. Also pretty inspiring!
May 7, 2020
A sad tale of youthful ambition, heroism, and loss.
The book takes us through five young men’s attempt to conquer Mount Cleveland (the tallest peak in Glacier National Park) in winter, their disappearance, and the heroic rescue attempts that ensued.
This is a fine bit of investigating, and the author mixes biography, snow science, and narrative with consummate skill.
The book takes us through five young men’s attempt to conquer Mount Cleveland (the tallest peak in Glacier National Park) in winter, their disappearance, and the heroic rescue attempts that ensued.
This is a fine bit of investigating, and the author mixes biography, snow science, and narrative with consummate skill.
October 21, 2025
Personal as these climbers were my dad’s students at mt tech and he was an advisor for the climbing club. The winter this happened, my dad was with me in the hospital as I was a sick baby. He was not able to go help search for them, but Jack Goebel, friend and fellow professor, did. Great information in this book, along with their tragic story,
January 30, 2024
Really an incredible read & with all the local references. So much important information about avalanches! I was often speaking to my son about the back county skiing he likes to do…So much in life is out of our control.
January 27, 2013
If there was a 4.5 star rating...this would've been perfect. The book starts out slow with very in-depth, personal descriptions of each of the main "players" in the tragedy. For me, this was a frustrating part of the book as I kept wondering...OK...when do we get to the meat of the tragedy. But the story soon takes off and you are thrust into the heart-pounding events leading up to the avalanche and the subsequent search/rescue and eventual recovery of the boys' bodies. In corresponding chapters and interlaced through the story, Dr. Jenkins also gives you a detailed history of people's lives interacting with avalanches as well as the science, myth and long history of avalanches and our relationship(s) to the mountains going back several thousand years. By the end of the book, I really felt like I knew all of the players involved - Park Rangers, the boys that were killed and their families, Helicopter Pilots - including the mountain itself...Mt. Cleveland. In addition, Dr. Jenkins did an outstanding job of describing and relaying everything involved in the real life events - emotions, weather, landscape, travel, technology, media, etc. Having lived in Kalispell, MT for a brief time and travelled in Glacier Nat'l Park, I knew some of which was referenced - geography, winter weather, summer weather, the copious amounts of snow, etc. BOTTOM LINE: I really, really liked this book and the story it told and it gave me tons of new perspective on a whole host of life issues...thanks Dr. Jenkins!!
October 23, 2015
Powerful message and an important story about the dangers offered by alpine terrain. The book has a mixture of history and science surrounding a story of a group of climbers who were killed by an avalanche, and the rescue effort that followed. The book comments on the cavalier approach wealthy society takes toward mountains - magazines encouraging people to ski down deadly chutes, building resorts high in the Alps and the Rockies. I wonder if the book was originally written in magazine installments - I found it annoying that the same characters and places were introduced over and over again. As with many general audience nonfiction books, it's a struggle to get through the middle third, but the beginning and ending are gripping.
June 2, 2015
Interesting read. Basically the story of 5 young men who tried to climb the north face of Mt, Cleveland in winter. It all ends tragically. Were they too young, too foolhardy? Or was it just an instance of being in wrong place at the wrong time. The reader really is left to draw their own conclusion. In the first half of the book the story of the boys is told and contrasted with a lot of snow information. Some is fascinating some quite too technical.
September 10, 2015
An excellent telling of the story of 5 young climbers who had enough hubris to attempt a first summit of the north face of Mt. Cleveland in winter. Plenty of history of climbing and rescue training as well as the science of avalanches. Very interesting and well worth your time if you're interested in climbing or skiing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 18, 2015
A Krakauer-caliber exploration with an important local connection to the park and mountains I know and love, cut through with plenty of compelling history and science of avalanche and winter mountaineering.
July 10, 2012
I'll never again think of snow as innocent or friendly.
August 2, 2012
More of a guide to deadly avalanche's across the world, than a story of the 5 climbers tragic death. Interesting, but repetitive.
April 24, 2014
Meh. Interesting if you like avalanches. The writing wasn't my favorite. This likely suffered from being preceded by Into Thin Air.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews