We have all encountered warning signs in our daily activities

To The Daily Sun,

On Saturday, March 24, at 2 p.m., author Ty Gagne will be at Gibson's Book Store, reading from his "Where You'll Find Me: Risk, Decisions, and the Last Climb of Kate Matrosova." I'm now in my third reading of this thoughtful telling of an accomplished and athletic hiker's ending on Mt. Madison's slopes, harsh winter weather bringing her down. She'd planned a fast-and-light loop. A solo hiker — her husband dropped her off at one trail head and would pick her up at day's end at another. As he does on p. 37, Ty Gagne draws lessons from her misfortune, understanding that we all take risks.

The yellow-colored signs leading to above-tree-line warn that turning back is a consideration in bad weather. Matrosova passes by, continues. Gagne says of this, "We have all encountered such a warning sign, literally in our outdoor adventuring or figuratively in daily activities. We are likely to dismiss such a warning, either through inertia or because we overestimate our ability to manage what we are heading into. If you have texted while driving, stood on a chair in your kitchen to retrieve something from a high shelf, or talked politics at a holiday gathering, you've walked by the yellow sign with casual abandon while placing yourself at varying degrees of risk."

Some of the book is poignant, because we are made to care for Kate Matrosova, as well as identify with her liking for the outdoors and nature. The book is instructive in a non-preaching voice. I've bought many copies now and given them to friends and family, put one in our Sanbornton library. I think of it as a save-your-life book. It should be read and passed forward. Ty Gagne should have a good audience on Saturday, our state being blessed with many ways to get pleasure in our outdoors and so many partaking.

Lynn Rudmin Chong

Sanbornton