Content Warning: I was warned before reading this one that if you are claustrophobic, this is a ROUGH book to read. I am not particularly claustrophobic, but in places, this made me shiver. Author Nevada Barr has a real talent for vivid, visceral descriptions and bringing her settings to life, which is what I LOVE about her books. I feel like with each book in the series, I am visiting each National Park Anna is assigned to. But in this one, be prepared, you’re definitely trapped in a cave! Becoming snowblind, one of the biggest... - The Weather Channel | Facebook". www.facebook.com . Retrieved 2017-03-16. The cavers who explore supercaves have to be ready for just about anything -- including flooded tunnels called "sumps." When they encounter a sump, cavers can either stop or put on scuba gear and charge ahead. However, two things bugged. One minor, one major. Who hiked out of the cave in the first place to get help? Why were they never a suspect? everyone else who remained in the cave was an automatic suspect. Meanwhile, this person was never mentioned again. You have no communication with the surface, and there's no sign of the lost pioneer team that you have been sent for. You start moving through the tunnel and see something you never expected.

But the murders don’t stop once the body is above ground. Anna, while investigating, dodges high-power rifle shots and finds the body of Brent Roxbury on the desert floor. A member of Frieda’s rescue party, he is dead beyond doubt.What Climbing a Mountain Taught Me About Setting Big Goals". SUCCESS. 2016-11-15 . Retrieved 2017-03-16. Thus, it was with some trepidation that I started Blind Descent. Blind Descent is a fair survey of the history of cave exploration but it is mainly the story of two caves and the men and women who explored them. It is also the tale of a sporting/scientific contest - the quest to find the deepest cave on earth. Does their circadian rhythm re-establish itself immediately on surfacing and having a good night's sleep or does the caving rhythm persist? Are there any long-term effects from prolonged darkness and being deep underground? In retrospect, the very first sentence should have put me on my guard: “As the fifteenth century began, we believed, absolutely, that the earth was flat.” So what exactly is a "supercave"? Think of Mount Everest, and now picture it in reverse ... and that's your basic supercave.

A former Navy rescue swimmer reaches Everest's summit - and survives a harrowing return trip". Militarytimes.com . Retrieved 16 February 2015. Spaces inside the caves vary widely, Tabor says. "They can be very very tight -- near the diameter of your garbage can -- or they can be immense, like a New York subway tunnel." Finished this a while ago but forgot to review. If I reviewed at the the time, this probably would've gotten 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. But with time and reflection, I'm rounding down to 3.

Customer reviews

I would have liked more attention to the preparations & struggles of many more situations during this adventure. I am thrilled that he has so much faith and love for his family, however the book ends up being more of a tribute to his faith and love for his family rather than his accomplishments and the climb itself. Blind Descent captures the challenge and characteristics of supercaving. It requires at least the preparation of an ascent to Mt. Everest; the endurance of a trek across the South Pole; the athleticism to endure a triathlon; and the perseverance to know, that if injured, it’s much easier for an extraction if several of your long bones are broken and folded over to conserve space in the wormy pitches and oblique faults you’ll be pushed and pulled along like a ball, eventually reaching the top several days later. The writing itself is okay. There is no bad language, sexual content or violence. The author does talk about his bodily functions in detail at times which was a bit much. There is a lot of unnecessary detail about other events in the author's life that are not related to the main story. He always emerges as the hero in those stories as well....

There will never be a cave that is "the world's deepest cave", only "the world's deepest cave so far". How can we know if we can't see? I can't believe I finished this book. While the underlying content was good, the pacing and organization was off. A big chunk on one team (Stone’s), a small chunk of the other (Klimchouk’s), mingle them a bit at the end, and blah. I’m glad I did push through to get to read about Klimchouk’s experience as an Ukranian. The book would have dramatically benefited from the inclusion of sketches and diagrams of the caves. The descriptions were completely insufficient to provide a sense of their direction and scale.Stone is a classic Type A personality, intensely focused, brilliant and unrelenting. He personally succeeded in designing a new underwater breathing apparatus, a re-breather, which the US military had spent tens of millions of dollars failing to develop. This SCUBA-on-steroids was a critical tool without which underground exploration, which entails having to traverse considerable distances underwater, was seriously limited. But the drive that defined Stone’s accomplishments did little for his relationships with people. His missions were subject to team mutinies more than once. It cost him his marriage and personal relationships beyond. Tabor, armed with full access to expedition materials, gives us a very detailed look at Stone’s efforts, in particular his attempts at the depths of the Cheve super-cave in Mexico. But cave explorers like Vesley and Farr could not see the route and so could not anticipate the dangers, a partial list of which includes drowning, fatal falls, premature burial, asphyxiation, hypothermia, hurricane-force winds, electrocution, earthquake-induced collapses, poison gases and walls dripping with sulfuric or hydrochloric acid. There are also rabid bats, snakes, troglodytic scorpions and spiders, radon and microbes that cause horrific diseases like histoplasmosis and leishmaniasis. Kitum Cave in Uganda is believed to be the birthplace of that ultragerm the Ebola virus. The book does a good job in explaining the technique of caving for the layperson, without getting too technical. Tabor is also very good with detailing the many (many) things that can go wrong in a caving expedition, and the consequences of illness, injury or bad planning. When he is on a role, the author does a commendable job with creating tension and suspense. I like Anna; she’s mentally and physically strong, intelligent, independent, and fiercely determined. Barr includes issues of corporate greed and environmental concerns, while extolling the majestic beauty of pristine caves, and praising the dedication of scientists and volunteers who try to map newly discovered underground treasures.