Van Tilburg, Christopher 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born June 13, 1966; married; children: two daughters. Education: Earned M.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Hood River, OR. Agent—Joëlle Delbourgo Associates, Inc., 516 Bloomfield Ave., Ste. 5, Montclair, NJ 07042. E-mail—vantilburg@gorge.net.

CAREER:

Physician and writer. Doctor at a mountain ski resort and emergency room. Member of the Crag Rats volunteer rescue team.

MEMBER:

Wilderness Medical Society (board member), Medical Committee of Mountain Rescue Association.

WRITINGS:

Backcountry Snowboarding, Mountaineers (Seattle, WA), 1998.

Canyoneering: Beginning to Advanced Techniques, Mountaineers (Seattle, WA), 2000.

Backcountry Ski! Oregon: Classic Descents for Skiers & Snowboarders, Including Southwest Washington, Sasquatch Books (Seattle, WA), 2001.

Emergency Survival: A Pocket Guide: Quick Information for Outdoor Safety, Mountaineers Books (Seattle, WA), 2001.

(Editor) First Aid: A Pocket Guide: Quick Information for Mountaineering and Backcountry Use, Mountaineers Books (Seattle, WA), 2001.

Watersports Safety and Emergency First Aid: A Handbook for Boaters, Anglers, Kayakers, River Runners, and Surfriders, Falcon (Guilford, CT), 2002.

Introducing Your Kids to the Outdoors, Stackpole Books (Mechanicsburg, PA), 2005.

Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature (memoir), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Backcountry, Columbia Gorge, and National Geographic Adventure. Editor-in-chief and author of the column "Great Gear for Work and Play" for Wilderness Medicine.

SIDELIGHTS:

Christopher Van Tilburg is a physician and writer. Born on June 13, 1966, he lives in rural Oregon, where he works as a doctor at a mountain ski resort, and as a part-time physician at a local emergency room. He also serves as a member of the Crag Rats volunteer rescue team, one of the oldest mountain rescue teams in the country. In this capacity he was involved in a number of rescue attempts, some of which received national media attention, including rescuing hikers, cliff jumpers, and bikers, and the 2006 search for eight hikers stranded on Mount Hood in the middle of the winter.

As a writer, Van Tilburg works as the editor-in-chief of Wilderness Medicine, the magazine for the Wilderness Medical Society, of which he is a board member. Van Tilburg writes the "Great Gear for Work and Play" column for the magazine and is also a member of the Medical Committee of Mountain Rescue Association. He also contributes to a number of periodicals, including Backcountry, Columbia Gorge, and National Geographic Adventure.

Van Tilburg began writing books in the late 1990s, when he published Backcountry Snowboarding in 1998. In 2000 he published Canyoneering: Beginningto Advanced Techniques. In 2001 he published three books, including Backcountry Ski! Oregon: Classic Descents for Skiers & Snowboarders, Including Southwest Washington, Emergency Survival: A Pocket Guide: Quick Information for Outdoor Safety, and First Aid: A Pocket Guide: Quick Information for Mountaineering and Backcountry Use. The following year Van Tilburg published Watersports Safety and Emergency First Aid: A Handbook for Boaters, Anglers, Kayakers, River Runners, and Surfriders. After a range of experiences with his own daughters, he published Introducing Your Kids to the Outdoors in 2005.

Van Tilburg published a memoir, Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature, in 2007. In this personal account, Van Tilburg highlights the numerous thrills and scares he has had as a mountain rescue team member and wilderness-based physician. As an avid lover of adventure sports, Van Tilburg thrives by mixing his adventurous nature with his professional skills as a doctor. He recounts being lowered down narrow cliffs to rescue people who had fallen and were seriously wounded. He includes information on Mount Hood, where he grew up, and on environmental and natural laws that impact the region. He also discusses how his family, despite their concern for the danger he puts himself in to save others, also take part in adventurous activities with him.

Paul Auerbach, writing in Diversion, commented that Mountain Rescue Doctor "is not a page-turner," but noted that "there is an element of stream of consciousness to it, which does not detract from its value but illuminates Van Tilburg's approach to life, medicine and his mountain rescue avocation." Auerbach concluded that Van Tilburg's "highly personal" stories comprise "a useful addition to the literature of wilderness medicine." Booklist contributor Donna Chavez remarked that "an unintended lesson here is to follow one's dream," as the author did by combining "medicine and his love of extreme sports." A contributor to Publishers Weekly mentioned that for those unfamiliar with the "beautiful Hood River area, he balances its undeniable perils with the joys of its scenic wonders." A critic writing in Kirkus Reviews remarked that Van Tilburg is "a seemingly superhuman emergency wilderness physician," adding that anyone who gets into trouble in the Hood River area would be "undoubtedly in good hands" with him there. The same critic described the memoir as an "exhilarating take on the daily life of a unique brand of doctor." Writing in Library Journal, Tina Neville "recommended … this fast-paced book" as it is "filled with adventure and good advice."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Van Tilburg, Christopher, Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2007, Donna Chavez, review of Mountain Rescue Doctor, p. 11.

Diversion, December 19, 2007, Paul Auerbach, review of Mountain Rescue Doctor.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2007, review of Mountain Rescue Doctor.

Library Journal, September 1, 2007, Tina Neville, review of Mountain Rescue Doctor, p. 158.

Publishers Weekly, August 13, 2007, review of Mountain Rescue Doctor, p. 53.

ONLINE

Christopher Van Tilburg Home Page,http://www.docwild.net (July 2, 2008).

Joëllle Delbourgo Associates Web site,http://www.delbourgo.com/ (July 2, 2008), Caroline Patton, author profile.