Books like The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko

In the winter of 1983 a record‑setting El Niño generated “superstorms” that drenched the West. A spring snowmelt sent massive runoff down the Colorado River toward Glen Canyon Dam, forcing federal officials to scramble to prevent a dam failure. Amid this crisis, a trio of river guides secretly built and launched the wooden dory Emerald Mile just below the dam’s base. The dory rushed downstream through a maelstrom of floodwater, marshaled by the dam’s released runoff. The river was already clogged with wreckage from commercial rafting accidents, and the chaotic conditions had already claimed lives. Still, captain Kenton Grua planned to harness the flood’s energy as a hydraulic slingshot, channeling himself and two companions through North America’s most violent white‑water, achieving the fastest Grand Canyon run ever.

First publish date: 2013