In October of 1982, a twenty-seven-year-old British alpinist named Alex MacIntyre was killed by rock fall during a descent of the south face of Annapurna." Thus begins this enthralling collection of Andrew Todhunter's tales of risk in the outdoors. From the frozen gullies of the Scottish highlands to the sunless depths of California's longest cave, Atlantic Monthly contributor Todhunter writes about so-called extreme sports from the inside. With the self-effacing gumption of a young George Plimpton or Tim Cahill, Todhunter is not content to interview his subjects from the safety of sea level. Instead, he climbs, paddles, dives under the ice, crawls through caves, and leaps-with grave reservations-from cliffs, in the company of some of the world's premier outdoor athletes. He does these things for fun, and writes about them in a controlled literary style reminiscent of John McPhee. "The Last Voyage of Steve Sinclair" (as "Gale-Force Kayaking") and "Beneath the Ice" received notable mention in The Best American Sports Writing series, edited by Glenn Stout. "The Precipitous World of Dan Osman" went on to become Todhunter's critically acclaimed book Fall of the Phantom Lord (Anchor Books, 1998). And although there are tragedies in this collection, past and present, Dangerous Games is no mere litany of disasters; "I prefer to write about the living," says Todhunter. "I want to know what pushes them to their own edge and what brings them back.   But peo