The White Cascade

The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche

By: Gary Krist

Narrated by: Robert Fass

From renowned writer and travel journalist Gary Krist comes the never-before-told story of one of the worst rail disasters in US history in which two trains full of people, trapped high in the Cascade Mountains, are hit by a devastating avalanche.

In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped - but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts.

For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men - led by the line's legendarily courageous superintendent, James O'Neill - worked round-the-clock to rescue the trains. But the storm was unrelenting, and to the passenger's great anxiety, the railcars - their only shelter - were parked precariously on the edge of a steep ravine. As the days passed, food and coal supplies dwindled. Panic and rage set in as snow accumulated deeper and deeper on the cliffs overhanging the trains. Finally, just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred: the earth shifted and a colossal avalanche tumbled from the high pinnacles, sweeping the trains and their sleeping passengers over the steep slope and down the mountainside.

Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, The White Cascade is the masterfully told story of a supremely dramatic and never-before-documented American tragedy. An adventure saga filled with colorful and engaging history, this is epic narrative storytelling at its finest.

©2007 Gary Krist (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Excellent

This is one of the better audiobooks out there. I dare say if it had an elite narrator, it would be a solid 5 stars. The story is compelling. The author gives the perfect amount of detail in order to inform the hearer. He doesn't get lost in trivial details like so many modern authors. The narrator is good but not great. I'd give him a b+. Definitely worth a credit

If You Liked Issac's Storm-

Then this book/story will be right up your alley- Book made me do some research on the area involved and the machinery !

Really entertaining history book!

I was really impressed with how the author took this sad historical event and made it an interesting story through the eyes of the passengers and rail road workers. The narrator was a little weird sounding at first but I got used to it pretty quickly and really enjoyed how he voiced the “characters”. Being a local, I thought this was a great way to learn about the horror at Wellington in more depth and hope to hike out there this summer.

Very interesting

Before listening to this story I was not familiar with the events and it was a great well written bit of history.

Lessons learned

I've been on the Cascade Loop before so I recognize the areas mentioned in the story and wish I had known about it before hand so I could have explored the area and history more. The story is a nice story with a interesting history lesson all in one. I encourage anyone interested in history of the northwest, railroads, or disasters to listen to this.