The Darkest White
A Mountain Legend and the Avalanche That Took Him
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4.4 • 11 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“Eric Blehm offers an insightful perspective on how Craig Kelly became the effortless icon that we all revered as well as sobering details of how his heroic journey tragically ended. The Darkest White is a must read, not just for fans of snowboarding, but for anyone looking for inspiration from an unlikely hero.”—Tony Hawk
From Eric Blehm, the bestselling author of The Last Season and Fearless, comes an extraordinary new book in the vein of Into the Wild, the story of the legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly and his death in the 2003 Durrand Glacier Avalanche—a devastating and controversial tragedy that claimed the lives of seven people.
On January 20, 2003, a thunderous crack rang out and a 100-foot-wide tide of snow barreled down the Northern Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. More than a dozen skiers and snowboarders were thrust down the mountain, buried beneath several tons of rock-hard snow and ice in the Durrand Glacier Avalanche. A heroic search and rescue ensued. Among those buried was Craig Kelly—“the Michael Jordan of snowboarding”—a man who had propelled the sport into the mainstream before walking away from competitions, to rekindle his passion in the untamed alpine wilds of North America
The Darkest White is the story of Craig Kelly’s life, a heartbreaking but extraordinary and inspiring odyssey of a latchkey kid whose athletic prowess and innovations would revolutionize winter sports, take him around the globe, and push him into ever more extreme environments that would ultimately take his life. It is also a definitive, immersive account of snowboarding and the cultural movement that exploded around it, growing the sport from minor Gen X cult hobby to Olympic centerpiece and a billion-dollar business full of feuds and rivalries. Finally, The Darkest White is a mesmerizing, cautionary portrait of the mountains, of the allure and the glory they offer, and of the avalanches they unleash with unforgiving fury.
"The most unremittingly exciting book of nonfiction I have come across in recent years. I found myself reading late into recent nights wholly transfixed by every paragraph, every word."—Simon Winchester, The New York Times Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Blehm (Fearless) charts in this comprehensive biography how snowboarding pioneer Craig Kelly (1966–2003) became the sport's "first true professional." Kelly grew up "a latchkey kid of divorced parents from small-town Mount Vernon, Washington," and began snowboarding in the early 1980s. His skill led to sponsorships, fans, and four world champion titles, but he stopped competing before snowboarding became an Olympic sport in 1998, preferring to board just "for the experience." In 2003, Kelly and six others died on Canada's Durrand Glacier during an avalanche, and Blehm goes to great lengths to recreate what happened. He hired Ruedi Beglinger, Kelly's guide on that fateful day, to take him on the mountains where Kelly died and persuaded the tight-lipped Beglinger and another guide to divulge details that shed new light on the tragedy. Such impressive reporting offers fresh insight into Kelly's final hours, and the author's empathetic portrayal of Kelly as a purist who "turned his back on business deals, high-dollar sponsorship contracts, and... prize money" to return to the "powdery backcountry that had first drawn him to his calling" will resonate even with those unfamiliar with his legacy. It's a stirring tribute to a talent gone too soon. This review has been updated to remove a spoiler.
