Shattered Air cover art

Shattered Air

A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Shattered Air

By: Bob Madgic, Adrian Esteban
Narrated by: Anthony Heald
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £10.99

Buy Now for £10.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 On the evening of July 27, 1985, five hikers made a fateful choice to climb Yosemite's fabled Half Dome, even as the sky darkened and thunder rolled. By night's end, two would be dead from a lightning strike, three gravely wounded, and desperate EMTs would be overseeing a harrowing midnight helicopter rescue.

Shattered Air is a haunting account of recklessness, tragedy, courage, and rescue, a book whose depiction of nature's power is tempered by unforgettable portraits of human courage and the will to survive.

©2005 Robert Madgic (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc. Climbing & Mountaineering Outdoors & Nature Sports Outdoor Adventure Hiking Extreme Sports

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Antarctic Tears cover art
A Life on the Edge cover art
6 Below cover art
The Altitude Journals cover art
Labyrinth of Ice cover art
Wild Rescues cover art
No Barriers cover art
Critical Hours cover art
The Twenty-Ninth Day cover art
No Shortcuts to the Top cover art
Ranger Confidential cover art
Kiss or Kill cover art
127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Movie Tie- In) cover art
Smokejumper cover art
Yellowstone: Hellfire cover art
The Sky Below cover art

Critic reviews

"[A] penetrating account of this tragedy." ( Booklist)
"If you've ever felt cavalier about dealing with mountain thunderstorms, this drama about lightning and death should fix it." ( San Francisco Chronicle)
"[A] well-written and thoroughly investigated account....Madgic's contribution to the adventure category is at once a terrifying story and an urgent cautionary tale." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
This book’s first few chapters are a bit slow & mundane. They left me wondering if I read the description correctly. By the time I was halfway through it had got exciting to the point where I struggled to stop listening. It’s hard to imagine the trauma these people went through during the whole ordeal.

Slow starter

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to the after Where you will find me’ and it definitely scratched the same itch. It was very informative about the hazards of hiking and slightly touched on risk management.

I felt like sometimes the author was confused about the audience. I don’t think many readers of this book would be unaware of what rock climbing is or what gear is needed for example. But I still found it very interesting.

But the voice actor really annoyed me, I felt like the cadence and intonation was really distracting in places. It was overly dramatic for a book I wanted to be quite dry and soothing to listen to.

Interesting story but voice actor was distracting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found it rather boring and tapped out on the 4th chapter. theres just way too much filler for my liking. I didnt need to hear a detailed over explained account of how one guy souped up his truck, so many things that just weren't relative to the story...just didnt hold my attention,

Got Bored before anything even happened

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Found it rather boring so stopped listening, shame really as I generally find these listens fascinating.

It didn’t get my interest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.