Dangerous Games: Ice Climbing, Storm Kayaking and Other Adventures from the Extreme Edge of Sports

by Andrew Todhunter

In October of 1982, a twenty-seven-year-old British alpinist named Alex MacIntyre was killed by rock fall during a descent of the south face of Annapurna." Thus begins this enthralling collection of Andrew Todhunter's tales of risk in the outdoors. From the frozen gullies of the Scottish highlands to the sunless depths of California's longest cave, Atlantic Monthly contributor Todhunter writes about so-called extreme sports from the inside. With the self-effacing gumption of a young George Plimpton or Tim Cahill, Todhunter is not content to interview his subjects from the safety of sea level.

Instead, he climbs, paddles, dives under the ice, crawls through caves, and leaps-with grave reservations-from cliffs, in the company of some of the world's premier outdoor athletes. He does these things for fun, and writes about them in a controlled literary style reminiscent of John McPhee. "The Last Voyage of Steve Sinclair" (as "Gale-Force Kayaking") and "Beneath the Ice" received notable mention in The Best American Sports Writing series, edited by Glenn Stout. "The Precipitous World of Dan Osman" went on to become Todhunter's critically acclaimed book Fall of the Phantom Lord (Anchor Books, 1998). And although there are tragedies in this collection, past and present, Dangerous Games is no mere litany of disasters; "I prefer to write about the living," says Todhunter. "I want to know what pushes them to their own edge and what brings them back.   But people do die, from time to time, by skirting that edge, and when that happens it's inevitably part of the story."

Here are nonsporting stories as "The Taming of the Saw," a delightful essay about learning to use a chainsaw in New York's Catskill Mountains; "The Wreck of the Belle," recounting a week spent with nautical archaeologists diving for a seventeenth-century French shipwreck; and finally, "Winter Passage," Todhunter's account of an Atlantic crossing, in January, on a German freighter. "It was a bit like Das Boot without the torpedoes," Todhunter says. "We spent most of the nights in the ship's bar. The ship's mechanic had brain cancer.  Most of them had failed marriages, or children they would never know. Many of them led brutal, broken lives, yet they were eminently decent. For me, the freighter was a way to get to Spain. For the crew-as the saying goes-it was a prison at sea."
Beautifully written and meticulously reported from the front lines of America's obsession with risk sports, Dangerous Games is a classic collection of adventure tales from one of America's finest outdoor writers.

Genres: Adventure

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

someone else summed this book up quite well “another boring book about interesting topics.” I was done within the first chapter. His writing style is so choppy and there’s so many characters to try to keep track of. “the extreme edge of sports” is a bit misleading to me. I’ve heard someone describe walking down the street in a more exciting way than this author does ice climbing.

[Dan]

Great book! The articles show some sports that I did not realize were "a thing".

[keith koenigsberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another terrible book about interesting topics. Perhaps these articles were good enough for various men's journals, but they are not the stuff of a decent book. Skip it.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is all about different extreme/dangerous sports, as well as peoples stories. Every chapter is another story, so one is about an alpinist ice climbing, another is about a kayaker that goes out into a storm and goes through the storm, another is about jumping off of high cliffs, etc. Every chapter has some background info or a story, and then it gives you the experience, and it tells you more about the people doing it or famous alpinists. For example, one chapter talks about the guy who holds the record for the longest fall (jumping off of cliffs and bridges) using a harness. It tells you about what he is wearing, all the equipment, then it gives you the experience/what he does. He stands there, counts down and goes over the tactics in his head (coil in the rope, etc) then he jumps, and he succeeds in breaking his record. Then it talks about his views in equipment safety, and how a friend died because the equipment failed, etc. And how it is best to educate everyone before they go and start doing it, and how three months later he died because of equipment failure.

I would recommend this book to people who are interested in sports such as climbing and kayaking, etc. But I also found it hard to understand at times and some chapters weren't as exciting as others, some chapters I even forgot about after reading the next two. The books keeps switching to a new story every chapter, so it does keep you thinking about what the next story is going to be.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The informative novel 'Dangerous games', written by Andrew Todhunter and consisting of 178 pages, describes different scenarios of extreme sports such as climbing, caving, diving or storm kayaking. The different narratives precisely describe the thrill and fun one could experience during such events, but also talks about the dangers and adrenalin rush that comes with an extreme sport. This novel was written for every extreme sport athlete, or to simply give people an insight of how it could be once you start participating in such activities. The narratives are all very lively and realistic and are easy to read and follow, which was a really good part of the book- sometimes you could even feel the cold and adrenalin rushing through your body. I would only recommend this book to people that are athletes and enjoy reading realistic adventure stories.