Into Thin Air

Utterly gripping. Horribly sad. Was still reading at 4.30am because I couldn't put it down. Beside the tragedy there are also some amazing stories of courage and survival.

FINALLY crossed this off my list. As promised, an absorbing read. Not anything more or less astonishing than other disaster account type literature, though.

A breathtaking account of a calamitous expedition on Mount Everst to which Krakauer took part. Very well written and engrossing. In the old journalist list, it attempts to be fair and not biased in the portrayal of the other men and women who participated and died in the expedition. Also, very informative regarding the extreme psychological and physical conditions in which men operate at such altitude, impairing their judgment and physical skills. A great read.

I read this and mainly felt sure of two things: 1) I never, ever, ever want to climb Mt. Everest, or really any mountain and 2) I felt very deeply sad for all of the emotional turmoil Jon Krakauer and the other members of his team felt. Since I don't really know... anything about rock climbing I felt a little bit outside of this story. I mean he explained all the climbing terminology and everything. Mainly I could not get over like, why the fuck would anyone want to put themselves through that? Whyyyyy. So whatever, I mean it was well-written and I really admired the painful honesty involved, but it's not my new favorite book or anything.

The drive of climbers in this book is amazing and confounding. In many instances they are literally stepping over dead bodies to reach the top of the world.

Climbing expedition to Everest.