Crisis on Mount Hood : Stories from a Hundred Years of Mountain Rescue by Christopher Van Tilburg
May 15 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
$5
Please join Christopher Van Tilburg and Glenn Voelz to discuss Crisis on Mount Hood: Stories from a Hundred Years of Mountain Rescue, publishing May 1, 2025.
In Crisis on Mount Hood, author and emergency room doctor Christopher Van Tilburg looks at the history of America’s oldest all-volunteer mountain rescue team, the Hood River Crag Rats, and his own three-decade commitment to search and rescue. Centered on Oregon’s iconic 11,249-foot-high Mount Hood, considered by many to be the world’s most-climbed glaciated peak, this dramatic narrative leads readers through a century of life-and-death challenges.
Covering the past, present, and future of Mount Hood, Van Tilburg highlights the titans of mountain rescue, the ways that outdoor recreation has changed over time, the challenging effects of climate change, and, most of all, the unwavering passion of search and rescue volunteers.
Christopher Van Tilburg, grew up in the Pacific Northwest and first climbed Mount Hood in 1994. He is an author and physician practicing emergency, wilderness, occupational, and travel medicine, as well as a medical director for four regional search and rescue teams, a past chair of Mountain Rescue Association’s Medical Committee, and a USA delegate to the International Commission for Alpine Rescue. Van Tilburg serves as the Hood River County public health officer and as medical examiner for five Oregon counties. For over twenty-five years he has volunteered for the Hood River Crag Rats mountain rescue team. Van Tilburg lives in Hood River, Oregon. Visit him online at christophervantilburg.com.
Glenn Voelz served for twenty-five years in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer. He held senior leadership positions at the Pentagon, in the White House and at NATO headquarters. He is a graduate of West Point and served on the faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of History. He is the author of more than a dozen books and journal articles and works as a professional ski patroller at the Mount Bachelor Nordic Center and a volunteer with Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue. Visit him online at glennvoelz.com.
ABOUT MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS: An independent, nonprofit publisher based in Seattle, Mountaineers Books has crafted award-winning books on outdoor recreation, sustainable lifestyle, and conservation since 1960 with the publication of Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, now in its 10th edition. Including imprints Skipstone and Braided River, the press has more than 700 books in print and/or e-book, including recently released Alpine Rising by Bernadette McDonald and Survival is Not Assured by Geoff Powter. Learn more at www.mountaineersbooks.org, and join the conversation on Facebook @MountaineersBooks, Instagram @mtnbooks, and Twitter @MtneersBooks.