Review: "Desperate Steps" by Peter Kick

Desperate Steps by Peter Kick
Published 2015 via Appalachian Mountain Club Books
★★★

They go into the woods, they go into the wild—and if all goes well, they make it out in one piece.

Desperate Steps is about times when things don't go to plan. A slip, a fall, a shift in the weather—some of the people profiled in these chapters make it out okay, but some of them don't. Either way, there are always questions: what could they have done differently? Was someone at fault? What lessons can readers take from this experience in order to increase the chances of all going well?

I love books about wilderness rescue, and just the wilderness in general, so I find this sort of thing straight-up fascinating. Unfortunately, I found this particular book a bit frustrating—in particular, the maps, which should have added substantially to the reading experience, detracted badly. They typically came relatively early on in the chapter—but often contained information about the outcome (body found here, so-and-so rescued there) that hadn't been reached by that point in the chapter. Petty though it feels when real lives were on the line in the events of these stories, if I'm going to be reading about mishaps in the woods, I'd like the suspense to be maintained until the appropriate point in the story. Even more frustrating, though: the maps often had information about different trails than the ones described in the narration. They're interesting maps (often with topographical information), but many of the details included in the maps are completely irrelevant to the stories, and many of the relevant details (trails, turn-offs) are omitted from the maps. The lack of attention to detail in the maps makes me wonder what other details don't line up, which is not a great feeling when reading nonfiction.

Interesting enough look at rescue stories, but not one I'd put high on any priority lists.