On Mount Hood: A Biography of Oregon's Perilous Peak [Paperback]

On Mount Hood is a contemporary, first-person narrative biography of Oregon's greatest mountain, featuring stories full of adventure and tragedy, history and geology, people and places, trivia and lore. The mountain itself helps create the notorious Oregon rains and deep alpine snows, and paved the way for snowboarding in the mid 1980s. Its forests provide some of the purest drinking water in the world, and its snowy peak captures the attention of the nation almost every time it wreaks fatal havoc on climbers seeking the summit. On Mount Hood builds a compelling story of a legendary mountain and its impact on the people who live in its shadow, and includes interviews with a forest activist, a volcanologist, and a para-rescue jumper. Jon Bell has been writing from his home base in Oregon since the late 1990s. His work has appeared in Backpacker, The Oregonian, The Rowing News, Oregon Coast, and many other publications. He lives in Lake Oswego, OR. [An] evocative exploration of the Mount Fuji of America. Open the book and climb.
Bruce Barcott, author ofThe Measure of a Mountain

It took more than a decade, but Mount Hood now has a book to rival Mount Rainier's.
The Oregonian

[On Mount Hood] offers a satisfying mix of interviews and facts about one of the state’s most recognizable features. Jon takes the reader along on his quest to learn more about the iconic mountain that dominates the Portland metro-area landscape. His authorial voice—as he asks questions, delves into history and demystifies geological phenomena—is professional and personal. Well-muscled sentences push the reader to consider the peak’s past, present and future and how its presence has affected us as human beings. On Mount Hood is a relevant read for anyone who has ever climbed Mount Hood, skied there, gasped at its immensity from the plane window, noted 'The mountain’s out today,' or tasted lƒ½