No Individual Heroes

No Individual Heroes is a book about the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team in Ouray County, Colorado. Our record gives it as published in 2018 in Ouray. The description sets the scene: dramatic mountains, winter ice climbing, challenging terrain, and a high altitude that can push visitors to their limits and beyond.

The description is plain about the stakes. Deaths from unforeseeable accidents at altitude can happen in bad weather, or in places where a helicopter rescue is impossible or extremely dangerous. For five decades the team has helped people in trouble there. The book also quotes journalist Roger Anderson: "The San Juans, for all their seemingly benign majesty, can be as unforgiving as they are beautiful."

The Colorado Gives page for the team says it was incorporated in 1974 and began when local adventurers supplied skills beyond what the Sheriff's Department had. It lists 32 active members, all volunteers, and says the services are free. Our catalogue record for the book carries no author name, so we leave the credit off this page until we can confirm it.

This book suits readers who want to understand how mountain rescue works in the San Juan Mountains around Ouray. It will also interest people who climb, ski or drive the high passes of southwestern Colorado and want to know who comes out when something goes wrong. The record does not list a page count, so we can't say how long it runs.