Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite

Butch Farabee and Michael Ghiglieri

Yosemite National Park holds a worldwide reputation for being one of the most astoundingly beautiful places on the planet. But along with Yosemite's ethereal beauty have come human errors. This ambitious, heavily researched, and absolutely gripping book explores every lethal danger in Yosemite and chronicles every fatal error made by those who failed to recognize or respect those perils. Indians, Forty-Niners, soldiers, casual visitors, concession workers, loggers, builders, National Park Service personnel, big wall climbers, hikers, fishermen, picknickers, and campers have entered the complex environment and topography of Yosemite for their own purposes then failed to understand what they were up against. Their true stories are suspenseful, engaging, and often astonishing. And while many are tragic, the accounts of near-misses offer inspiration and even humor. Authors Farabee and Ghiglieri recount many little known errors for the first time. They also set the record straight on every famous and infamous saga of death in Yosemite from the time of the Mariposa Battalion's "war" against the Yosemite Indians to the infamous rope-jumping death of super-soloist Dan Osman.

608 pages, paperback, published March 2007