Sobre homens e montanhas é uma coletânea de textos sobre o mundo da escalada escrito de forma muito fluida e bem humorada, mas sem perder a profundidade. Krakauer escreveu sobre escalada, mas não somente para escaladores: as exposições sobre a vida dos esportistas, suas motivações e inseguranças dá ao livro viés antropológico muito rico, o que eleva a leitura para além de uma mera exposição de temas associados ao esporte. Além disso, embora os textos gravitem sobre um mesmo tema, não é um livro monótono: Krakauer fez uma mistura muito bem temperada de escritos sobre modalidades específicas e seus criadores/praticantes, grandes tentativas de conquistas de cumes - e suas desventuras -, relatos de expedições próprias - o que dá um tom intimista ao livro - e até uma curiosa descrição do mercado de taxi aéreo alasquiano que se desenvolveu só para servir escaladores buscando conquistar os picos da região. É um livro que me vejo relendo seus textos no futuro.

Jon Krakauer's pre-"I'm a big fabulous author" essay collection and it's amazing. As a huge fan of "Into Thin Air," I loved hearing him write about mountain climbing in general, whether it was his own experiences or talking about others who are huge in the sport. Some of his work in here is super funny, just the way he describes things...very enjoyable. I think all essays were written in the 80s at some point, and there's one about a disastrous year on the mountain K2 from 1986 where he goes into depth discussing whether it's cruel to leave a climber behind when your own life is at stake...knowing his own story ten years down the line on Everest when his own expedition had to make a similar call in leaving quite a few climbers behind, I think when he defended their actions, many thought he was just trying to justify his own reasons for putting himself before others...so it's quite eye-opening to see that his opinion never once wavered. How he defended the expedition in 1996 is exactly how he defends the K2 climbers who left their friends behind to die on the mountain ten years earlier. It was actually a bit chilling to read and take in but really a crap ton of people jump at Krakauer for not leaving his tent to search for missing climbers when it's like dude, in storms like that where everyone is dead tired, it truly is every man for himself and you know that going into it. Anyway, great read, I wish he was still climbing and writing about it because who knew reading about people climbing up snow and ice and rocks could be awesome?

This is one of those books that is exactly its description and I feel like you know going in if this will be for you or not. It's a collection of 12 articles Krakauer wrote about mountain climbing (or related topics) in the 80s. I like journalism and I like Krakauer's writing style, so I quite enjoyed this book.

I will admit that mountain climbing is not a particular interest of mine, but I have already read Into Thin Air which piqued my curiosity in the topic. If you're a bit hesitant because of the mountain climbing, I definitely recommend getting through Into Thin Air first. It helps to read this as a follow up, even though it was published nearly a decade earlier.

I don't think this book has a whole lot of staying power for me. I read it over the course of a month (which is normally how I get through collections) and the articles themselves faded pretty fast from my mind. The only ones I can strongly remember details from were the last, about Krakauer's personal experience soloing a peak in Alaska, and my least favorite about being stuck in your tent for days/weeks during bad weather. Everything else started blurring together as soon as I finished each individual piece.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book. I really enjoyed it while reading it. Krakauer's writing is great and the topics were varied and interesting, mostly. Even when they weren't, one of the great things about journalism collections is that the pieces aren't ever much more than 20 pages so you move on pretty fast. It was great to have a little taste of different people and events and histories of mountain climbing.

I'd definitely recommend if it sounds like your kind of thing. It was a very worthwhile read and he has another book that I believe is similar in nature (Classic Krakauer) that I plan on reading soon.

Tras la estupenda lectura de "Krakauer esencial" en su reciente publicación en castellano, me lanzo a la reelectura de "Sueños del Eiger", otra esplendida recopilación de artículos de Krakauer. Relatos fascinantes sobre alpinistas emblemáticos y otros desconocidos (al menos para mi); sobre montañas emblemáticas como el Mont Blanc, Eiger o K2; sobre escalada en bloque, en hielo; sobre barranquismo en barrancos casi desconocidos; sobre los arriesgados viajes de los pilotos de avioneta para aterrizar en glaciares cercanos al McKinley; sobre el sueño de juventud del propio Krakauer de subir al pulgar de los diablos, en Alaska, y su aventura para lograr este sueño....En fin, páginas y páginas de esplendida literatura de montaña y, en el fondo, de literatura sobre la condición humana.