The introverted Morgenson was more comfortable with the natural world than with people. Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio call. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.To pick up The Last Season is to lose oneself in a mesmerizing story about a place few could survive in and even fewer have visited-the unforgiving backcountry of the Sierra Nevadas. Blehm's reconstruction of a desperate search-and-rescue operation woven with Morgenson's riveting biography takes readers deep into the heart of the High Sierra and into the little-known and much-romanticized world of the backcountry rangers - revealing in the end the mind and spirit of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man. It is the result of eight years of research by Eric Blehm to uncover the truth about one of the national parks' greatest mysteries. Morgenson, after all, had once said, 'The least I owe these mountains is a body.' As one of the Park Service's most intensive search-and-rescue operations unraveled, some wondered if they were searching for a man who did not want to be found.ĭestined to become a classic in mountain literature, The Last Season is a work that is as captivating in its writing as it is compelling in its sense of adventure. When, at the height of his struggles, he went missing without a trace in Kings Canyon National Park, where he had long patrolled, many suspected suicide or foul play. He became fiercely devoted to preventing outside forces from encroaching on the wilderness he loved.īut over the years, the isolation Morgenson had once cherished took its toll, and he grew increasingly estranged from his wife and friends. For the solitary, introspective Morgenson, who grew up in Yosemite Valley and as a young man honed his mountaineering skills in the Himalayas, this was more than a job - it was a calling. The Last Season tells the inspiring, poignant story of Morgenson, who, over the course of twenty-eight summers living alone in this craggy wilderness, became a celebrated ranger in the National Park Service's most adventurous unit.

But these mountains are as perilous as they are beautiful: here is where the Donner Party was trapped and where scores of unlucky hikers must be rescued every year. The granite spires of the High Sierra have historically been a refuge of inspiration and adventure for the likes of John Muir and Ansel Adams, as well as for the pioneering rock climbers of the 1960s. In the spirit of Jon Krakauer's bestselling Into the Wild, Eric Blehm's The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada.

The Last Season by Eric Blehm