Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

2016 National Outdoor Book Award Winner for Outdoor Classic

Two River-Running Authors Take Us on a Gripping Tour of All Known Fatal Mishaps in the Most Famous of the World's Natural Wonders

Aside from being the most famous and most visited of the World's Seven Natural Wonders, Grand Canyon also holds the reputation of being Mother Nature's most impressive death trap. How well deserved is this reputation? Why does this reputation seem so credible? And what, exactly, are the most lethal dangers that Grand Canyon poses? Are they its soaring cliffs, or its heat, or its bewildering maze of unscalable rock leading to "nowhere?" Or instead is it the "Killer Colorado" rushing through its Inner Gorge?

Grand Canyon's death toll below the rims leaves Mount Everest's appalling record in the dust. This ambitious, well researched, and absolutely gripping book Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon explores every Canyon danger and chronicles every fatal error made by those who failed to respect them.

These pages recount story after story of Man Meets Grand Canyon—and Underestimates It. Casual visitors, adventurers, prospectors, and professional outdoorsmen alike have stepped up to the sudden edge of the vast, unforgiving, desert crucible of Grand Canyon, and failed to understand what they saw. These true stories are suspenseful, engaging, and often astounding. And while many are tragic, the accounts of near-misses offer inspiration and often humor as well. Every story told here—whether of foolish errors or heroism—offers a lesson of survival.

The dangers of Grand Canyon mentioned above—plus an astounding and lethal array of other dangers yet—have claimed hundreds of victims. And this amazing book Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon covers them all.

Authors Ghiglieri and Myers recount many little known fatal incidents for the first time. They also set the record straight on every famous and infamous saga of death in the Canyon. They offer surprising new revelations about what may have happened to John Wesley Powell's missing three men in 1869 and to "honeymooners" Glen and Bessie Hyde, who vanished in 1928.

Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon offers the first comprehensive look at where and how things start going wrong in Grand Canyon. Its lessons compromise a great leap forward in our quest to prevent future fatalities.

Authors Ghiglieri—an ecologist and veteran Canyon river guide of 142 Canyon traverses—and Myers, a medical physician at Grand Canyon Clinic for a decade and a Canyon explorer since age ten, recount many little known fatal incidents for the first time. They set the record straight on every famous—and infamous—saga of death in the Canyon. They recount Arizona's biggest manhunt in history, a 54-day pursuit of Danny Ray Horning and trace the bizarre career of serial killer Robert Merlin Spangler.