I think I got this at a garage sale in Ferndale a couple years ago. I dig documentaries and I loved Into the Wild, so I figured this would be a good bet.
As luck would have it, I was right. I loved every minute of this story. Read it in three days. Very compelling stuff.
Jon Krakauer is a journalist who was sent to summit Everest in '96 and write about it for a magazine he worked for. An avid climber since he was a young man, he'd always wanted the opportunity to climb Everest. And at up to 65k for a guided ascent, it sure as hell wasn't cheap. So here was a chance to do it and get paid at the same time. Killer! Literally.
The '96 season lead to numerous deaths on Everest, and Jon was there right in the thick of it. Lucky to be alive himself, he documented his story in this nail-biting and foreboding book. It makes for a thrilling and sad read. He pissed off some of the friends and loved ones with his original article, and no doubt he may have pissed off more with this book. But it is what it is. One man's recollection of the events on the face of the tallest mountain in the world. 29,000 ft above sea level. Shit's crazy, man.
If you like any sort of human endurance stories, tales about surmounting the impossible, tales of heroism and things of that nature...this is your jam. Check it out.
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