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Posted By : Stuart Clark - 5/11/2007 5:11 PM

Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer's personal account of the 1996 Everest disaster that left 8 people dead on the roof of the world.

A seasoned climber and journalist, Krakauer had harbored desires to climb Everest since a young man and was handed the opportunity when Outside magazine agreed to cover his costs as a client on a guided climb. Krakauer's assignment was to report on the increasing commercialisation of Everest and the safety considerations for taking relatively inexperienced climbers on what, even today, is a technically difficult climb.

Climbing is not the only difficulty to overcome on Everest. The effects of high altitude and cold are debilitating and the weather a factor that can change in a heartbeat. Never in his wildest dreams did Krakauer think he would become involved in one of the most tragic days in Everest's history. To this day, controversy rages on about the catalog of events that led to disaster.

Into Thin Air is a great book. Despite it being Krakauer's attempt at making peace with himself (A case of mistaken identity high on the mountain by the author himself left one victim's family devastated), it doesn't read like a cathartic outpouring. Moreso, an account of what happened that fateful day on Everest told in a very honest manner.

If the gripping story isn't enough to hold your interest, Krakauer's practised journalistic style makes this an easy read. Intersting to both climbers and non-climbers, Into Thin Air is a great book for both adrenaline junkies and armchair sloths.

www.stuartclark.net

Posted By : Bill Ward - 5/12/2007 2:39 PM

That's sounds good; did you happen to catch the discovery channel's Everest mini-series? I found it riveting, I'd certainly enjoy reading more about it.

Posted By : nathan - 5/13/2007 12:20 PM

Yep watched that series x2 it was so riveting. I got a little ver-clempt several times.

Into Thin Air is one of the best books I've ever read in my life. It is completely great by any metric you use.

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"Writing the wet dreams of teenage boys" - Lindsey Llyod, Tangent Reviews

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Posted By : Stuart Clark - 5/13/2007 10:42 PM

Hey WD, I didn't see the Discovery documentary, but what piqued my interest in this was seeing some footage from Nat Geo's recent"ish" doco about Everest with Peter Hilary climbing the mountain to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his father's conquering of the mountain.

I really enjoyed Into Thin Air and thoroughly recommend it.

As a footnote, one of the guides written about in Krakauer's book (Anatoli Boukreev) who felt somewhat maligned by this telling of the story wrote a responsorial tome entitled "The Climb", describing his version of events. By all accounts it is not as good as Into Thin Air and is somewhat factually incorrect, something that Krakauer responds to in later versions of Into Thin Air.

Boukreev, who survived the Everest disaster later perished in an avalanche on Anapura.

www.stuartclark.net

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