The Next Fifteen Minutes: Strength From the Top of the Mountain
By Kim Kircher
Trade paperback
5 ½ x 8 ½
Non-fiction/memoir
Release Date: October 2011
$15.95
ISBN: 9781933016115
Kim Kircher’s husband’s illness wasn’t something she could just blow up as she had done countless times on the ski slopes, dropping enough explosives until the avalanches fell where she could watch the mountain disintegrate from above.
Instead, Kim faced the biggest double black diamond ski run of her life as she listened to the doctors put her husband on the transplant list while he fought bile duct cancer.
The Next Fifteen Minutes is Kim’s high octane story of how she drew strength from her life among the ski slopes and the daring world that showed her how to survive and fight back.
About the Author
Kim Kircher
Kim Kircher has logged over six hundred hours of explosives control, earning not only her avalanche blaster’s card, but also a heli-blaster endorsement, allowing her to fly over the slopes in a helicopter and drop bombs from the open cockpit, while uttering the fabulously thrilling words “bombs away” into the mic.
An Emergency Medical Technician, she has received both a National Ski Patrol Purple Merit Star for saving a life as well as a Green Merit Star for saving a life in arduous conditions. Before working in the ski industry, she received her BA and teaching certificate from the University of Washington, and taught high school English for five years. Her articles have appeared in River Explorer, Couloir Magazine and Off-Piste Magazine.
She is a current member of the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association and co-authors a blog about her job at Crystal Mountain Ski Area. Kim starred in a reality show about ski patrollers on the cable channel TRU-TV. Her husband’s family owns and operates ten ski areas in the United States and Canada, including Crystal Mountain, where she was worked for twenty years.
Check out Kim’s website: kimkircher.com
Reviews and Accolades
2012 NAJSA Harlod Hirsch Award winner: NAJSA (North American Snowsports Journalism Award) honored Kim Kircher with The Harold Hirsch Award in the Book Category for excellence in journalism, at their Annual Conference in 2012 at Mammoth Mountain. The book category is only given every three years. Judges are chosen based on their expertise in the field, and are not members of the organization. The award is named for Harold Hirsch, a long-time ski journalist, and member of the NASJA Board.
