Shattered Air

In 1985 two hikers were killed by lightning while climbing Yosemite's Half Dome, which has been described as a "granite lightning rod." This is their story, and much more. Madgic explores the history of Yosemite, the damage lightning can do, methods to treat it, the efforts of a female EMT who kept the injured alive until a helicopter could come, and the hikers' backgrounds. Anthony Heald's slightly husky voice is perfect for this outdoor horror story. He adds foreshadowing when describing the gathering clouds, quickens the pace during the storm, and injects personality into the follow-up interviews. Listen and be educated, entertained--and cautioned. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

April 25, 2005
Madgic claims that "in the annals of hiking tragedies caused by lightning," an ill-fated climb up Yosemite's famed Half Dome mountain by five experienced hikers in 1985 was "one of the most calamitous... of all time." Two of the hikers were killed and three sustained life-altering injuries after they decided to ignore signs of an oncoming thunderstorm and continued climbing a mountain whose peak had been struck by lightning during every month of that year. Madgic, a writer on the outdoors and a Half Dome climbing vet, delivers a well-written and thoroughly investigated account, but his real subject is less the hikers and more the "raw, fearsome power" of lightning. While he provides in-depth profiles of each hiker and their shared enthusiasm for risk taking as a way of conquering "personal fear," he makes it clear from the start that none of them "really knew the capacities, behaviors and dangers of thunderstorms." Madgic provides a fascinating—if somewhat stomach-churning—account of how the walls of a cave the hikers took refuge in conducted the electrical charge that devastated them, and his contribution to the adventure category is at once a terrifying story and an urgent cautionary tale. Photos.