Wilderness Search and Rescue. Tim J. Setnicka. Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston, 1980. 640 pages, black and white photographs, line drawings, bibliography. $12.95.

High Drama offers clear, precise and new descriptions of well- known—and some unknown—accidents that have occurred in many of the world’s major mountain ranges. Its perspective is that of the rescuers.

MacInnes begins with the Eiger North Wall, a route which has claimed more lives per attempts than any other. There is also an account of an avalanche in Poland’s Tatras—probably the biggest avalanche experienced in an inhabited area—and a chapter on the dawn of helicopter rescues. MacInnes himself tells of three very different accidents in Scotland involving an avalanche, hypothermia and the supreme efforts of a climber attempting to rescue his companion.

Mountain aficionados will find many familiar names in this book. I discovered many of my friends; most of them the rescuers, but one a victim of youth and circumstances beyond his control. Steve Smith died from exposure in one of the worst accidents in American mountaineering. Anyone considering membership on a mountain trek or climb should read this chapter which describes clearly the qualities to look for in a leader.

The book then moves to New Zealand and an account of an accident on Mount Cook’s LaPerouse route—a route that had only been climbed twelve times by 1948. Ruth Adams, who was with Edmund Hillary and two guides fell a considerable distance because the climbing rope broke. Her rescue, involving sixteen climbers, was long and technical. In the final accounts, English mountaineers hold the stage. Paul Nunn’s perspective on the 1974 Pamir tragedy appears for the first time and adds important insights to what has already appeared on this subject. There is also Doug Scott’s description of his ordeal on the Ogre. His several-day crawl down from 24,000 feet with two broken legs defines the limits of human potential, serving as the highest measure of what the body and mind can endure. Novice climbers in hard places should heed the message well: think twice and remember Scott before calling for rescue services.

The episodes described are well written and nicely interspersed with MacInnes’ personal observations and descriptions. He has climbed with or knows most of the major characters in the book, is himself recognized as an exemplary figure in the mountain rescue world and has participated in countless rescue operations. High Drama should be in everyone’s library.

Of Tim Setnicka’s Wilderness Search and Rescue, I must confess that I could not read it from cover to cover. The scale of the work is monumental. The book is divided into four parts that include: a brief introduction, “The History and Philosophy of Search and Rescue”; a section for equipment freaks and beginners, “Tools”; and “Rescue Systems,” covering caves and white-water as well as mountains.

Who will buy this book? Everyone will buy it. For the nonclimber, it’s the armchair fascination with gadgets and the hundreds of pictures and illustrations of bloodcurdling situations. It’s easy to get hooked on these visuals.

There is a lot of practical material here, most of it coming from the author’s years of high-angle rescue work in Yosemite Valley. Setnicka is obviously the Rube Goldberg of the rescue world who has compiled his discoveries—and others—into a good standard-of-practice manual which should be useful to rescue groups with well-developed expertise. I would hope, however, that no individual or rescue group would purchase the book with the idea of using it as a substitute for experience.

Jed Williamson