A member of the North Shore Rescue team who was trapped on Canada’s highest mountain in 2005 has written about his horrific ordeal in his new book called Surviving Logan.
Erik Bjarnason and co-author Cathi Shaw tell the story of how he and two other North Shore search and rescue team members survived a extratropical cyclone on Prospector’s Col, on top of Mt. Logan at Kluane National Park in the Yukon.
In May 2005, seven members of the search and rescue organization took part in the climbing expedition. One group got to the summit earlier in the day. But Bjarnason’s group got caught in the storm.
The three men were stuck 5,500 metres up the mountain suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.
Bjarnason had all of his finger tips frozen off, as well as half a thumb.
Another member, Don Jardine, suffered frostbite on all of his toes and six of his fingers.
The book details how the men were rescued and Bjarnason’s life after the event. He describes how he was able to retrain and return to his job as a firefighter and his subsequent climbs of Mt. Elbrus in Russia and Mt. Everest.
Bjarnason will be holding a book signing at 1 p.m. on Dec. 4 at Black Bond Books in Haney Place Mall.