Technically, it’s one book that I recently read. Not an especially long read, but a hard one in many ways.
The title, Where You’ll Find Me, published in 2015, is an account of the rescue attempt of a hiker named Kate Matrasova, a New York City-based hiker who was attempting to traverse five peaks in New Hampshire’s Presidential Range. By all accounts, she was a physically fit, experienced hiker who had been to a number of different places worldwide where the hiking challenges were brutal.
Unfortunately, her talent and experience didn’t account for the challenge of these mountains. The Presidential Range is notorious not necessarily because of the climbing (New Hampshire is the home 48 mountains where the summits are 4,000 feet high at a minimum) but because of the weather. One of the mountains in the middle of the range is Mount Washington. At a height of 6,288 feet it is the tallest mountain in the northeastern United States. While it is not near the height of Mount Rainier or McKinley (Denali), it has some of the fiercest weather world-wide. High winds and cold temperatures are not unheard of in summer, and a regular occurrence in winter.
Her hike was intended to be a fourteen hour trek. She had researched the route, the weather conditions, and what she would need for gear. She also had selected six bailout locations where she could get below the tree line if she got into trouble. The distance wasn’t exceptionally long, but the weather conditions would turn out to be a factor in her failure, and ultimately, her death off of the Star Lake Trail on Mount Adams.
Ty Gagne, the author of this memoir, did a really good job of recounting the efforts of the rescuers as well as following what was believed to be her hiking route to where she ended up off of the trail, exposed to the weather, unable to make her way to the tree line. He described the process of hypothermia, from mild to severe, and how it affects the human body. He also recounted what was found near her, and what was not, including food, frozen water bottles, and the communications equipment she brought with her.
It is a really good study about risk, and the decisions people make under potentially arduous conditions. And it is well-written; Gagne does a noteworthy job with his narrative. Probably the hardest part of the memoir is reading the account, rooting for her, and knowing what the result will be. That was like a gut punch.
With that said, I would high recommend it just the same. As I write this post, I am listening to it again as an audiobook. I fully expect to pick some of what I likely missed in my initial reading.
Qui Interrogat 