Blind Descent
The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth
1 of 2 copies available
In 2004, two great scientist-explorers are attempting to find the bottom of the world. Bold, heroic American Bill Stone is committed to the vast Cheve Cave, located in southern Mexico and deadly even by supercave standards. On the other side of the globe, legendary Ukrainian explorer Alexander Klimchouk—Stone’s polar opposite in temperament and style, but every bit his equal in scientific expertise, physical bravery, and sheer determination—has targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the Republic of Georgia, where underground dangers are compounded by the horrors of separatist war in this former Soviet republic.
Blind Descent explores both the brightest and darkest aspects of the timeless human urge to discover—to be first. It is also a thrilling epic about a pursuit that makes even extreme mountaineering and ocean exploration pale by comparison. These supercavers spent months in multiple camps almost two vertical miles deep and many more miles from their caves’ exits. They had to contend with thousand-foot drops, deadly flooded tunnels, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, and much more. Perhaps even worse were the psychological horrors produced by weeks plunged into absolute, perpetual darkness, beyond all hope of rescue, including a particularly insidious derangement called The Rapture.
James M. Tabor was granted unprecedented access to logs, journals, photographs, and video footage of these expeditions, as well as many hours of personal interviews with surviving participants. Blind Descent is an unforgettable addition to the classic literature of discovery and adventure. It is also a testament to human survival and endurance—and to two extraordinary men whose relentless pursuit of greatness led them to heights of triumph and depths of tragedy neither could have imagined.
Includes a 16-pg full-color insert
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 15, 2010 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780307736819
- File size: 287533 KB
- Duration: 09:59:01
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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We're all familiar with many adventuring firsts--Everest, the South Pole, a step on the moon. But what about the deepest cave in the world? How many know where it is or who discovered it? Don Leslie's bold, deep voice is perfect for leading listeners into supercaves with brave and obsessed scientist-explorers. These hostile caves are pitch-black and freezing, and there are more than 50 ways to die in one. Exploration requires long rappels, squeezing through skinny passages with vampire bats, and risky dives. Leslie is adept at employing effective pacing and tone to carry listeners through myriad emotions--from sadness at a team's loss after a death to heart-pumping excitement at moments of discovery. A CD amplifies the book's grand sense of scale with color photos of small humans against the backdrop of huge caves. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from April 12, 2010
Tabor, a former contributing editor at Outside
magazine and author of Forever on the Mountain
, contrasts two sterling teams, one American and the other Russian, in their perilous search to locate the deepest supercave on earth. While the book dwells largely on the obsessive, authoritative American star caver, Bill Stone, the writer gives just enough ink to the bold Soviet team counterpart ,Alexander Klimchouk, and his fair-but-firm leadership in his expeditions into the subterranean world. However, the personalities of the adventurers aside, it’s the fascinating information of the big supercave treks that holds the reader to his seat, containing dangers aplenty with deadly falls, killer microbes, sudden burial, asphyxiation, claustrophobia, anxiety, and hallucinations far underneath the ground in a lightless world. Using a pulse-pounding narrative, this is tense real-life adventure pitting two master cavers mirroring the cold war with very uncommonly high stakes.
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