Lessons from Yosemite’s Fatal Past
Last summer, with my brothers Brian and Eric, Jennifer and I took an incredible rafting trip down the Colorado River, through the first half of the Grand Canyon. One of our guides, an erudite, friendly guy that we all called “Dr Michael,” seemed to know an awful lot about fatal mishaps in canyon history. For good reason: it turned out that Dr. Michael Ghiglieri was the co-author of the longtime Arizona bestseller, “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon,” which pretty much covers the territory you’d expect.
During one of those sparkling nights in the canyon, the doctor mentioned he was working on a new book: Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite. My razor-sharp journalistic instincts kicked in. Back at home after the trip, I bided my time and kept in touch with him. This week, I took the opportunity of the new book’s impending publication to meet Dr. Michael again in Yosemite and write this article for the Escapes section of the New York Times. Needless to say, rational readers of his excellent, thorough and chilling book will not be wandering off Yosemite’s marked trails anytime soon.