An extract from the book which I feel aptly reflects the nature of mountains, as well as the people who attempt to climb them:

'Hackett’s team, I later learned, not only received no remuneration for their lifesaving labors, but—having failed to obtain funding in both 1986 and 1987—met most of the project’s expenses out of their own pockets. I asked one of the doctors, Howard Donner, why they volunteered to spend their summers toiling in such a godforsaken place. “Well,” he explained as he stood shivering in a blizzard, reeling from nausea and a blinding headache while attempting to repair a broken radio antenna, “it’s sort of like having fun, only different.”'

Yikes.

This was the best book I could have read to start the new year, I think. It's also fitting that I read it while freezing my butt off in the snowy wilderness, slightly concerned that I might be getting frostbite.

As some of you may know, I spend all my time either out in the mountains or thinking about being in the mountains — and bathing in all of the challenges, goals, and dreams that go along with pushing your limits outside. This book is a gorgeous collection of stories about mountaineering with a bit of climbing and bouldering sprinkled in. People who obsess over mountains are an interesting bunch, and my favorite chapters were the essays that focused on particular characters.

I don't think you'd appreciate this as much if you aren't completely obsessed with the outdoors and climbing/mountaineering.

Here is the most memorable line, regarding the popularity of the West Buttress route on Denali: "So many people try the route, Jonathan Waterman writes in Surviving Denali, that at the higher elevations where gale-force winds regularly scour all fresh snow from the slopes soon after it falls, climbers must 'select cooking snow very carefully from among the wasteland of brown turds... Fortunately, sometimes below 15,000 feet, snowfall will cover the excrement, the bodies, the trash, and the jettisoned gear."

Mountaineering is no joke, and it claims many lives. But there's something about those mountains that keep calling us.

Brilliant exposition of the unique people who climb the world’s biggest mountains and how they frequently will endure massive risk just to make it to the top - also a reminder that I will never be mad enough to do such a thing!

Two stars is supposed to mean, "it was okay" and sadly that is all I feel about this book. I thought that I'd like it as I do enjoy reading about people's adventures and found the two other Krakauer books that I have read (Into Thin Air and Into the Wild) to be quite good. Unfortunately, this one fell short for me. The book was broken up into sections of short stories/climbing history, some of which I found very interesting, but often I found myself spacing out while reading. Not his best work. The last section on his arrogant attempt at Alaska's Devil's Thumb was engaging as well as a few of the other short blurbs about other people's mountaineering attempts, but all in all I was disappointed.

Nobody writes about mountaineering like Krakauer. It almost makes me want to head to Alaska and climb some beautiful hard icy terrain. But then I realize I'd hate that and probably die in the process. So only almost.

Yes babyyy after a year of not finding in charity shops I bought the darn thing off ebay I'm so gassed
.......
YEAAA KRAKAUERRR!! Real fun collected essays about niches in the mental world of climbing and mountaineering but make it all 80s.

There's an essay about glacier piloting that mentions that french geeza who wrote The Little Prince can't remember his name (saint-auuxeeiahdjfkshsj???) but I got a book by him about piloting thats been knocking about for years so maybe I'll give that tiny lil thing some love.

Reading this while living in Alaska is surreal but so much time has passed, it’s crazy how far mountaineering has come.

I read the first three or four stories, then got bored and returned the book to the library. It was a disappointment, because I love all of the author's other books. I think the stories were too dated or something; they had a definite 80s feel to them.

An amazing collection of Mountaineering stories. Each and every chapter presents a fresh point of view about the sport. Krakauer has managed to talk about various aspects of rock climbing, ice climbing and mountain climbing in general. I liked how he discusses the technical aspects in climbing like measuring the altitude of a peak, flying in Talkeetna, canyons, about being tentbound and many other intriguing tales.
One can relate to and learn so much from these stories. This book also introduces the readers to less known heros who have achieved unbelievable feats. Taking adventure sport to a new level, this book helps in widening one's horizons.
A must read for all mountain lovers and Mountaineering enthusiasts.

Adoro o estilo do Jon Krakauer: direto, simples, mas com histórias incríveis para contar. me sinto parte desse clube exclusivo de aventureiros e escaladores em todos os livros dele. este é uma coletânea de pequenas histórias que vale a leitura.

"A trance-like state settles over your efforts, the climb becomes a clear-eyed dream. Hours slide by like minutes. The accrued guilt and clutter of day-to-day existence - the lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the festering familial sores, the inescapable prison of your genes - all of it is temporarily forgotten, crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose, and by the seriousness of the task at hand."

Well that does sound lovely!?

Christmas gift from my parents. On my wish list after reading Into The Wild & Into Thin Air.

This book did: make me happy my obsession is solely with reading about ventures and not with venturing myself.

This book did not: mesmerize me the way ITW & ITA did. I expected to read more about the reasoning and personality/history behind the risktaking involved with mountaineering. Instead it was a collection of stories accompanied by too many numbers I could have looked up on Wikipedia.

I like Krakauer best when he is subjective.