Whenever the forecast reveals that a snowy day could be approaching some people prepare for being stuck inside their homes, while others prepare for sledding and building snowmen. Whether or not you’re a fan of all that cold white stuff that occasionally falls from the sky, it is rare that Central Virginians have to deal with being stuck in dangerous, life-threatening amounts of snow.
If you were caught in a terrible blizzard, would you be able to survive? Would you be able to join a wolf pack, build your own shelter, or climb straight up an 80-foot wall of ice in order to live? Check out these books from the JMRL catalog to read about how people, both fictional and real, have braved the elements of winter:
Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen – Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author’s book “Hatchet,” this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.
The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier by Jim Davison & Kevin Vaughan – A full-length account of a story covered in a Pulitzer Prize-nominated article documents the 1992 mountaineering venture during which co-author Jim Davidson and his best friend, Mike Price, ascended Mount Rainier before a tragic fall that instantly ended Mike’s life and forced Jim to climb to safety with sparse equipment.
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George – While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer – The author of Into the Wild describes his spring 1996 trek to Mt. Everest, an expedition that ended in disaster, claiming the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived, in a definitive, firsthand account of the tragedy.
One Crow Alone by S.D. Crockett – Living in an isolated Polish village with her grandmother, fifteen-year-old Magda Krol has no idea of the troubles sweeping across the planet. But when her village is evacuated without her, Magda must make her way alone across the frozen wilderness to Krakow, and then on to London, where she dreams of finding warmth and safety with her long-lost mother.
The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler – Documents the harrowing 1897 rescue story of eight American whale ships that were locked in the ice off the coast of Alaska, tracing the heroic efforts of three men dispatched by President McKinley to save 300 sailors from the elements and starvation.