Crazy for the Storm

Categories: Nonfiction

Norman Ollestad’s father was larger than life. He’d surf the wildest waves, ski the steepest slopes, race away from the federales and charm suspicious locals with guitar serenades—and take his little son with him.

Norman grew up in his mom’s beach house in Topanga Beach, California, loving and hating how his father swept him away. He’d miss birthday parties for terrifying, exhilarating adventures. He surfed as soon as he could stand and was in training as an Olympic skier. His father called him "Boy Wonder," but he was secretly ashamed of his fear.

On February 19, 1979, when he was eleven, they climbed into a rented airplane to get to a ski championship. Half an hour later, it crashed into an 8,600 foot mountain in the middle of a snowstorm.

Only Norman got down the mountain alive.

Crazy for the Storm is his memoir of that feat of survival and the story of his complicated relationship with his father, who put him into danger and taught him the skills to get out of it.

The book is told in alternating chapters on the mountain and back on the beach. The story of Norman’s relationship with his vivid, dangerous father, his complicated home life with his mom and her drunken boyfriend, and the long violent spiral he slid into after his father’s death is as enthralling as the minute-by-minute recital of his mountain ordeal.

This is a short, gut-wrenching read. And once you pick it up, you’re not going to put it down until you’ve turned the last page.