When Dean Rosnau, 56, began climbing as a Southern California teenager in 1975, the desert crags of Joshua Tree and the alpine cliffs of Tahquitz were his milieu. Soon, he made his way to the big walls of Yosemite Valley and beyond.

When a little girl named Laura Bradbury disappeared from her family campsite in Joshua Tree in 1984, Dean found his calling in life, immersing himself into the world of Search and Rescue with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office.

In 1989, Dean relocated to the eastern high Sierra, joining Mono County Sheriff SAR....one of the busiest SAR teams in the nation.

In his new memoir, The Shortest Straw - Search and Rescue in the High Sierra, Dean recounts a number of his experiences after nearly 44 years of climbing, and 33 years of SAR. In these accounts, he gives detailed information of how a SAR operation works, writing in a style that brings you to the scene in edgy detail. The book concludes with an open missing person case that Dean is still working in the Ritter Range, near Mammoth.

Dean is a retired custom home designer/builder, and continues to enjoy his life's passions. He recently moved from the eastern Sierra to San Luis Obispo, on the central coast, where he lives with his family.