NC outdoorsman describes near-death experience in 'Mountain Wave'
A mountain wave, sometimes called a williwaw, is a sudden, violent wind gust, rolling off a mountain into a body of water below, sometimes reaching speeds of up to 100 mph.
Tar Heel outdoor cameraman Joe Albea learned about mountain waves the hard way. He nearly died.
In "Mountain Wave," Albea and Nathan Summers describe an incident in September 1989 -- just as Hurricane Hugo was targeting the Carolina coast. Albea, then based in Charlotte, was in the Alaska Peninsula, some 500 miles southwest of Anchorage, taking videos of caribou and moose hunting at a remote lodge.
In calm weather, Albea, his partner, a guide and a hunter were tracking a trophy moose across the tundra. They got their prey.
The trouble started when they started to head back across Sandy Lake, a 14-square-mile flooded crater. Suddenly, a mountain wave kicked up, rocking and finally capsizing their 17-foot aluminum boat. The foursome was thrown into freezing waters, miles from help.
Some of them did not make it.
"Mountain Wave" is a gripping survival yarn. Albea and Summers make the point that -- rugged individualism aside -- the survivors were saved by the volunteering and service of dozens of individuals, including Coast Guard pilots but also ordinary hunters, guides and fishery workers.
Albea cut his teeth on the old "Southern Sportsman" show and has been a longtime producer and cameraman for the PBS-NC TV shows "Exploring North Carolina" and "Carolina Outdoor Journal." (A true professional, while fighting for his life and battling hypothermia, he never lost hold of his camera case. He saved the film.)
Summers, a veteran sports writer, has contributed to North Carolina Wildlife.
The photos are fine (many of which appear in black and white in the book), but neither writer is quite on a par with Hemingway or Robert Ruak. In fact, passages of "Mountain Wave" feel like they were written by committee, or a bad ChatBot.
Fortunately, the basic story is so suspenseful that readers will plow through the dense passages to find out what happened next.
This is the perfect book or the dad or uncle who loves hunting.
Book review
Mountain Wave
By Joe Albea and Nathan Summers, Winterville: Mountain Wave Productions, $17.99 paperback
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: In 'Mountain Wave' a NC outdoorsman shares his fight for survival
