America’s fascination with Alaska began at the turn of the last century, when Jack London and John Muir captivated readers with their fiction and nonfiction stories – and continues today with such popular books as Into the Wild and the explosion of Alaska reality TV shows.

In such a giant and forbidding place, people lose their way. They hurt themselves. Their equipment fails. They clash with wildlife. And in Alaska, one stroke of bad luck – one small mistake – can mean catastrophe.

This book recounts twenty true misadventures, all but one told from the survivor’s point of view. Its chapters describe getting lost in the wilderness, bear attacks, dead-stick landings, snowmobile mishaps , overturned canoes, and even escape from a steaming volcano.