Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth |  | Author: James M. Tabor
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $11.98
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Seller: Holston Book
Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 5,244
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 1400067677
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.525
EAN: 9781400067671
ASIN: 1400067677
Publication Date: June 15, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The deepest cave on earth was a prize that had remained unclaimed for centuries, long after every other ultimate discovery had been made: both poles by 1912, Everest in 1958, the Challenger Deep in 1961. In 1969 we even walked on the moon. And yet as late as 2000, the earth’s deepest cave—the supercave—remained undiscovered. This is the story of the men and women who risked everything to find it, earning their place in history beside the likes of Peary, Amundsen, Hillary, and Armstrong.
In 2004, two great scientist-explorers are attempting to find the bottom of the world. Bold, heroic American Bill Stone is committed to the vast Cheve Cave, located in southern Mexico and deadly even by supercave standards. On the other side of the globe, legendary Ukrainian explorer Alexander Klimchouk—Stone’s polar opposite in temperament and style, but every bit his equal in scientific expertise, physical bravery, and sheer determination—has targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the Republic of Georgia, where underground dangers are compounded by the horrors of separatist war in this former Soviet republic.
Blind Descent explores both the brightest and darkest aspects of the timeless human urge to discover—to be first. It is also a thrilling epic about a pursuit that makes even extreme mountaineering and ocean exploration pale by comparison. These supercavers spent months in multiple camps almost two vertical miles deep and many more miles from their caves’ exits. They had to contend with thousand-foot drops, deadly flooded tunnels, raging whitewater rivers, monstrous waterfalls, mile-long belly crawls, and much more. Perhaps even worse were the psychological horrors produced by weeks plunged into absolute, perpetual darkness, beyond all hope of rescue, including a particularly insidious derangement called The Rapture.
James M. Tabor was granted unprecedented access to logs, journals, photographs, and video footage of these expeditions, as well as many hours of personal interviews with surviving participants. Blind Descent is an unforgettable addition to the classic literature of discovery and adventure. It is also a testament to human survival and endurance—and to two extraordinary men whose relentless pursuit of greatness led them to heights of triumph and depths of tragedy neither could have imagined.
Includes a 16-pg full-color insert
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2010: Set in impenetrable darkness, James M. Tabor's Blind Descent is as awe-inspiring as any adventure story above ground. Tabor's claustrophobic and pulse-pounding narrative follows two of the world's premier cavers--American Bill Stone and Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk--as they race to explore Earth's deepest caves, swimming through steering wheel-sized tunnels and scaling rock walls slick with spring runoff. Caving is dirty and dangerous work, and Tabor pulls no punches in describing the many terrifying hazards that cavers face underground, including falling rocks, hypothermia, starvation, nitrogen narcosis, hallucinations, hypoxia, and deadly anxiety attacks. He captures the eerie mixture of excitement and horror that accompanies life in extreme environments, while shedding light on the ineffable and complex moral code that governs men and women in places where survival is hoped for, but never guaranteed. Blind Descent is a captivating summer read for adventure seekers and armchair adrenaline junkies alike. --Lynette Mong
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
 Armchair Caver's Delight! May 18, 2010
Lynne E. (California)
48 out of 51 found this review helpful
Entertaining account of the expeditions of two world-renowned cavers (Bill Stone, Alexander Klimchouk) that explored deep supercaves in Mexico (Cheve, Huautla) and the Republic of Georgia (Krubera). Serious cavers will likely be familiar with many of the discoveries recounted, but armchair cavers will enjoy learning about the tremendous obstacles, common to supercaves, that must be traversed in deep cave exploration (e.g., vertical shafts of up to 500 feet, crashing waterfalls, boulders, seemingly impassable sumps, extremely tight meanders).
The book goes into detail about caving techniques, the special dangers of cave diving, and the development of the rebreathers that make extended exploration by cave divers possible. There are vivid descriptions of actions that proved fatal, or nearly fatal, to some cavers. There is also much interesting biographical information about both Stone and Klimchouk. The well-written, page-turning narrative is presented in a way that makes caving accessible to non-cavers.
The advance review copy that I received had no photographs, which was a disappointment. However, the author's skill at describing underground scenes makes up considerably for the lack of photographs. If the hardcover book should include photographs, then this book should receive 5 stars. (Rating changed to 5 stars on 6/2/10. See comments to this review.)
Wow May 19, 2010
Kara J. Jorges (Minneapolis)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful
Caves and caving fascinate me, so when I saw there was a book about supercave exploration, I had to read it. I am so glad I did. I was absolutely glued to this book from the first page to the last. The only thing it lacked was a section of pictures, but that's the price I pay for reading an advance copy--the published edition has several pages of them. Even so, I was able to look those up on the internet so I could have a visual reference, which made the book even more powerful.
This is not so much the story of cave exploration as it is about cave explorers. Tabor researched two premier cavers from the USA and the Republic of Georgia, and devoted a section of the book to each. American Bill Stone has led several expeditions into supercaves in Mexico, while Ukranian Alexander Klimchouk has headed several European expeditions on the Arabika Massif in the Republic of Georgia.
In addition to following the amazing accomplishments of both men, Tabor explained in great detail the hardships and dangers involved in supercave exploration. I felt like I was there on the expeditions; rappelling, digging, crawling, diving, and freezing underground for days or weeks on end along with the cavers mentioned in this book. I have nothing but respect for this handful of people who risk their lives for the thrill of going thousands of feet underground and braving the dangers there in order to share their discoveries with the world. There's pretty much no chance at all of me dropping down the first shaft of Cheve Cave, and forget it with Krubera, so I really appreciate this insider view.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It's highly informative, giving outsiders an intimate view of what goes into supercave exploration, and it's also an exciting page-turner. Tabor has a way of keeping readers on the edge of their seats as he takes us through real-life underground exploration. I found myself thinking of several fascinating topics I wish he would write about because he has a way of making an informative, nonfiction book into an exciting adventure, and not many authors can pull that off.
Awesome Caving Book - Get Ready For An Adventure! May 1, 2010
Rico
25 out of 28 found this review helpful
I wasn't sure when I first picked up Blind Descent that I would like it. I mean honestly, how good can a book about caving be when you can't actually see the cave itself? After two days of forcing myself to put this book down, I can honestly say it's the best book about caves I have ever read. The author does an amazing job of describing the caves and explorers. It's no too much detail that you get tired of reading...but it's enough to let you picture it in your mind. The book follows two different main characters, and reading about them and their exploits is like watching a dangerous stunt knowing that something could go wrong. As Blind Descent shows, when you're thousands of feet down in a cave, something going wrong usually means death or a close call for a caver. I think the book is very respectable to cavers, and after reading it, I am glad that more people will understand the risk they take to explorer Earth's last frontier so to speak.
Blind Descent has been a great "armchair adventure" to me, and if you like caves, exploring, or adventure type books, you will not be disappointed with this book! It's something I read in two days because I just couldn't put it down...you'll enjoy the journey.
Update: Mr. Tabor has informed me that the book will have a number of pictures!
Like I Was There ... Without All the Physical Strain May 20, 2010
paisleymonsoon (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I've grown to really love adventure and survival books and thought this would definitely be an interesting read in the genre. I wasn't disappointed. Blind Descent tells of cave exploration adventures in 2 of the world's deepest caves. I was initially concerned that the author wouldn't be able to make me see the cave in my mind as he told the story and that the author couldn't possibly hold my interest throughout the entire book, but I was absolutely enthralled and found myself daydreaming of cave diving between reads.
When I first thought what I might encounter in this book, I wondered what fun there could be in dropping into a deep hole that went down thousands of feet, but these caves aren't simply deep holes. The process includes rappelling down some very large shafts as well as walking some straight stretches before hitting another shaft or waterfall. Sometimes they have to send divers to swim through water they call "sumps" in order to find another opening into the cave beyond. Other times they find themselves trying to squeeze through very tight openings between rocks or even digging to make room for their bodies to fit though tinier openings carved by water over time. The experience is physically demanding and sometimes even deadly. And the exploration can last, sometimes, decades.
This particular caving book chronicles (as much as possible) deep cave discoveries in the Cheve Cave of Mexico and the Krubera cave in The Republic of Georgia. The caves are very different and so are the leaders of the expeditions. The Mexican cave is climatically normal and fairly open while the Georgian one is very cold and filled with very tight, slippery spaces. The leader of the Cheve Cave expeditions (an American) is hot-headed and lusty while the leader of the Krubera expeditions (a Ukranian) is level-headed and systematic.
There's far more information in the book about the Cheve Cave expeditions than the Krubera expeditions. I think this partially is because of language barriers for interview and partially because there probably was much more of a story to tell about the Cheve cave expeditions. In fact, I was glad the Krubera section of the book was fairly short because I wanted to get back to reading about the Cheve Cave.
I wish the book would have had pictures. I'm sure the book would have been more expensive to publish with pictures. However, a quick search online yields many pictures from various sources, including some really nice pictures of Cheve Cave on Flickr.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves adventure or survival stories or caving.
Now this book is a DEEP subject May 27, 2010
W. T. Hoffman (Pennsylvania, United States)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
BLIND DESCENT is the kind of book you read, if your favorite channel is NATGEO, and your favorite film is INTO THIN AIR, and you have a strong taste for adventure and Human Exploration. The book recounts two different explorers, Bill Stone and Alex Klimchouk, going after the same prise, the discovery of the deepest cave in the world. The two different cave explorations occured over a period of several years, with Bill Stone (funded by NatGeo, among other companies) looking for the deepest cave in Mexico, at Cheve, and Klimchouk looking in the southern USSR (ie Georgia), in the Arabika Massif. (Krubera is the name of the deepest cave.) This book tells a story about how these two men, totally obsessively driven, lead nearly parallel lives as they sacrificed their family relationships, and in the case of Bill Stone, much more, looking for fame and glory. Unless you've seen the National Geographic TV Specials about the exploration and discovery of the deepest cave in the world, or read the book BEYOND THE DEEP, or read National Geographic magazine, then the ending of the book will be unknown to you. BLIND DESCENT mostly recounting the numerous expeditions of Bill Stone into the CHEVE megacave system, as he bets his life on finding the world's deepest cave. However, like other explorers who go the limit, either to be the first to reach the South Pole, North Pole, or scale Mt Everest, or for that matter, even the first astronauts, these explorations dare death, while using the newest technologies, just to be in the record books.
Anyone who loves adventure, scientific discovery, and TENSION (aka suspence), then this is a book for you. These spelunkers arent just NO FEAR teenagers out for a thrill. These men who head these explorations in the deepest caves, have at least PhDs, multiple talents, incredible athletic abilities, courage, and a bit of insanity. I'd like to go into detail about the adventures, and the tragidies of this book, but why spoil it? I will say this, that I actually stopped reading it a couple of times, cos BLIND DESCENT's discription of the events in the caves was very intense, and I have clastophobia. Other fears you get to face are poisonous snakes, cave spiders, total darkness, and drowning in water sinkholes and meanders more narrow than your laptop computer screen. My only problem with this book, was a lack of photographs, cave maps, etc, that would have definately helped to visualize what was being explained by the author. Its one thing to call a cave a fairy land, or an ugly brown mess with a foot of bat guana on the floor, or to discribe this deep holes they had to rappel to the bottom, but its much better to see a photo. So, for any of you who'd like to have a good idea what to expect here, go to your favorite internet search engine, type in either ARABIKA MASSIF or KRUBIKA for the deepest cave in the former USSR republic of Georgia, or type in CHEVE cave system in Mexico. You'll see the links sponsered by NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and link onto them. You'll see cave maps, tons of photos, and a brief discription of the various attempts by both men to be the first to stand on the bottom of the world. If you enjoy what you see, and think a whole book about cave exploration might be for you, DEFINATELY buy this book. If you visited caves before, or if you are a spelunker, or Geologist perhaps, you'll enjoy the book even more. But this book is definately for those people who love true life adventure stories, and the biographies of the men who sacrifice their lives, to be the FIRST. From the days of Christopher Columbus, to Neil Armstrong, some guys have the right stuff to make these sacrifices. With complete candor, the lives of these two men, STONE and KLIMCHOUK, are revealed warts and all. Actualy, the book is less about EXPLORATION, and more about EXPLORERS. The book explores extremes in Human nature, that push certain driven individuals forward into the unknown. It's a good summer read, and you'll walk away learning something new about caves and the people who love them.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
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