i havent left my house in 37 days and i think its finally getting to me because, after reading this, i immediately thought, ‘climbing everest sounds like fun.’

its official - ive gone insane.

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i feel beyond guilty for finding so much fascination with what was the most horrific moment in krakauers life. i am a terrible human, but i honestly couldnt put this down.

there is just something about krakauers writing that makes me think his grocery lists are equally alluring. and knowing how personal this was for him made this book that much more captivating for me. i loved how this is formatted, the way the facts are presented, and how coherent the timeline and his commentary is. just everything about this invites the reader in in such an informative and also highly emotionally way.

i truly cant imagine what i would have done or how i would currently feel if i was in his shoes. but i am so grateful that he felt the desire to share and document this story. so tragic and, yet, so fascinating.

↠ 4.5 stars

Utterly harrowing and propulsive. I could not put this book down. This is another book that details people's misguided quests to conquer nature--to see nature as something to be conquered. It's also another great cold-weather read, to make you realize that, really, it's not so cold out after all.

I recently attended the Banff mountain film festival in Canada. One of the key speakers was Simone Moro, the close friend of Anatoli Boukreev, the climber who was killed in an avalanche several years ago on Annapurna and whom Krakauer pretty much vilifies in this book as not having done enough to save the lives of those caught in the blizzard on Mount Everest in May of 1996. Needless to say, the vibe in the room was chilly whenever the subject of Krakauer's version of events came up; he was accused of slander and some in the room even claimed that he had not done much himself to save the lives of those in danger during the Everest disaster.

Nevertheless, as a reader of climbing nonfiction, I stand by Krakauer. I have always found his account of the Everest disaster an intensely moving and thought-provoking one. Like Joe Simpson's books, Into Thin Air reveals its speaker to be a climber with a conscience. Kraukauer loves climbing but is completely honest about the fact that such a dangerous sport so often puts one in the agonizing position of having to make life or death decisions under conditions that make clear thinking nearly impossible-- the cold, the lack of oxygen, the immense strain on the body at that great elevation. One gets the sense while reading that he is trying to make sense of this crazy sport as he writes, that this book is his process of figuring out the answer to the question: with all of the dangers and fatalities that result from climbing Everest, why on earth do people actually sign themselves up for this kind of thing?

In the years since I first picked up this book, I have discovered many other great climbing books in the adventure genre, although Krakauer's remains one of my all-time favorites. For more accounts of the Everest disaster, see also Boukreev's The Climb and Beck Weather's Left for Dead. If you enjoy Krakauer's writing, you might also enjoy Nando Parrado's Miracle in the Andes, a true account of the narrow escape of some members of a Uruguayan rugby team that survived by any means necessary-- and I do mean ANY means necessary--two grueling months in the Andes after their plane crashed in the mountains on the way home from a game. In addition, Joe Simpson's Touching the Void is a similarly remarkable story of a climber who survives unlikely odds after breaking his leg on the side of the mountain Siula Grande in Peru. There are also movie versions of both (Titled Alive and Touching the Void, respectively.) In addition, a movie version is due out soon for one of Krakauer's other wilderness adventure books, Into The Wild.

Mitte der 90er Jahre fragt das Outdoor-Magazin Outside bei dem Schriftsteller Jon Krakauer an, ob er als passionierter Bergsteiger Interesse hätte, eine Reportage über die Kommerzialisierung des Mount Everest zu schreiben. Die Zeitschrift würde ihm dafür eine Reise zum Everest-Basislager zahlen, damit er sich vor Ort ein Bild zur Situation machen kann.
Im ersten Moment eher überrascht-abgeneigt, beschließt Krakauer schließlich doch, das Angebot anzunehmen - unter der Bedinung, dass Outside nicht nur die Reise zum Basislager finanziert, sondern ihn in eine Expedition zum Gipfel des höchsten Berges der Welt einbucht. Im Frühjar 1996 ist es soweit: Als Teilnehmer einer Expedition um den berühmten Bergsteiger Rob Hall macht sich Krakauer auf den Weg zum Dach der Erde und wird in den folgenden Tagen Zeuge einer der größten Tragödien in der Geschichte der Everest-Besteigung.

Als einer der wenigen Überlebenden seiner Gruppe kommt Krakauer nur schwer über seine Zeit im Himalaya hinweg. "In eisige Höhen" schildert seine Vorbereitung, seinen Aufstieg und seinen Todeskampf am Mount Everest. In den Monaten nach der Tragödie sammelt und ordnet er seine Erinnerungen und veröffentlicht sie schließlich in Buchform, um seinen Kameraden und dem Unglück am Mount Everest im Mai 1996 zu gedenken.

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Obwohl ich selbst eher Wanderin als Bergsteigerin bin, habe ich seit jeher eine unerklärliche Obsession mit dem Bergsteigen. Mit Faszination habe ich schon als Teenager die Wikipedia-Artikel über erste Versuche der Eiger-Nordwand-Beisteigung gelesen. "In eisige Höhen" konnte mich demenstprechend sehr begeistern. Lange ist es her, dass mich ein Buch so ergriffen hat. Bis in meine Träume haben mich Krakauers eindrucksvolle Schilderungen begleitet. Jeder, der auf diesen Berg geht, nimmt den Tod bewusst in Kauf, dennoch erzählt jeder Tote, der an den Hängen des Everest liegt, seine eigene Geschichte, seine eigene Tragödie.

Was für ein schreckliches Ereignis, was für ein unglaublich gutes Buch.

Whoops, definitely forgot to update my reading status over the past few days! It's probably a good thing, though, because I needed to take a little time after this one to think my rating through.

This is a very well-written account of the author's part in a deadly Mt. Everest expedition back in the '90s. He observes right from the start that he wrote this book too soon after the incident; he knew he didn't have enough distance from the events to have good enough perspective, but he pushed through to write it anyway because he was having trouble making sense of the experience but was simultaneously deeply haunted by it. He claims he needed to put it down on the page right then and there.

I respect that he acknowledged that, but it still was my biggest complaint about the book: the whole thing felt confused and rushed. A small handful of people in the comments of my Booktube channel have recommended The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest (another climber's account of the disaster) as a follow up and for another angle on the incident which I'm considering picking up here soon because I was just...a little let down by this extremely popular nonfiction book.

Numb!

A harrowing account of the Mount Everest Disaster of 1996. Krakauer's account is concise and anxiety-inducing. To be honest, my biggest takeaway is that you have to be just about insane to willingly attempt something like this.

Premettendo che io e l'alpinismo non abbiamo mai avuto il piacere di incontrarci, questo libro, che è l'essenza dell'alpinismo, (perchè l'Everest, essendo la vetta più alta del mondo, è ambita da tutti gli scalatori) mi è piaciuto tantissimo, perchè l'ho trovato molto coinvolgente ed emozionante.
Partendo per gradi: io credo che il punto di forza di questo resoconto, della scalata al tetto del mondo più catastrofica che sia mai avvenuta, è che essendo stato scritto da un "reduce", si sentono subito, nelle prime pagine, gli stati d'animo autentici di uno che ha vissuto un'esperienza che gli ha cambiato la vita per sempre.
Poi il fatto di non essersi soffermato molto sugli aspetti tecnici della scalata e dell'attrezzatura, ma focalizzandosi di più sull'aspetto emotivo e relazionale della spedizione, ha fatto sì che la lettura fosse più scorrevole.
Ma quello che più di tutti mi ha coinvolto, è stata quella sensazione di essere lì, di essere un altro compagno della spedizione, di essere presente anch'io a quell'incontro con la natura più selvaggia ed estrema, di vedere il mondo dall'alto e di avere l'impressione di toccare il cielo con un dito.
Ho conosciuto gli sherpa, che fino ad ora (forse sono l'unico) mi erano sconosciuti. I disegni ad ogni inizio capitolo sono stupendi e le foto di repertorio al centro del libro mi hanno rivelato alcuni punti della scalata e soprattutto alcuni dei visi dei partecipanti ed un brivido lungo la schiena mi ha fatto vibrare come se stessi ad un passo dal precipizio.
Insomma una lettura di rara emozionalità e carica di un fascino per l'ignoto che solo alcuni eventi possono creare e l'Everest mi sembra uno dei posti, insieme all'Antartide, più intriganti che esista...

"Diffido delle sintesi, di ogni genere di carrellata nel tempo, di ogni pretesa eccessiva di tenere sotto controllo ciò che si racconta; a mio parere, chi pretende di comprendere pur essendo palesemente tranquillo, chi sostiene di scrivere tenendo a freno l'emotività, è uno sciocco e un bugiardo. Capire significa tremare. Rievocare significa rientrare nei fatti e farsene lacerare... Ammiro l'autorità dell'inginocchiarsi di fronte all'evento." - Harold Brodkey - Manipulations

On assignment for Outside Magazine, journalist Jon Krakauer joined an expedition to climb Mt. Everest in 1996, and gives a heart wrenching account of the climbing disaster that took place that year. It's hard to put down, and an unforgettable read!

I live in Seattle and on a reasonably clear day Mount Rainier, at 14,000+ feet, graces the skyline with her majestic beauty and mystique. Sometimes it looks like you can reach out and touch it. It has an undeniable allure. There are lots and lots of climbers up there every year, and it is a highly desirable North American peak for people to scale that still offers challenge and excitement and danger. High altitude mountain climbing is not for the faint of heart yet it is easy to understand how people can be seduced by the idea of conquering a big feat like this. But you look at Everest and wonder why anyone in their right mind would risk their life to go up there. Aren't some things and places in nature better left to just be? Apparently humans can't help themselves. “Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics, and others with a shaky hold on reality.”

Jon Krakauer was offered an opportunity to join an Everest climb so he could write a magazine article. He ended up on a historic climb that turned tragic for several in his party as well as a couple other expeditions on the mountain at the same time. Krakauer is a very good writer and he conveys the magnitude of the operation, the challenge, the personalities, and the journey quite well. That he managed to survive could be chalked up to what turned out to be some fairly good decisions on his part despite his relative lack of experience at this level. It is tough to breath up there much less think, and although he had climbing experience this was a first for him. Seeing the journey through his eyes was fascinating. With the benefit of hindsight, he levels criticism at some of the planners, guides, and fellow climbers, that may be warranted but understandably was met with controversy by loved ones and some in the elite climbing community. Nonetheless, it is the true story of a harrowing climb that few ever attempt. Gripping story.

This is a story that sounds too unlikely, too cinematic, to make up. In 1996, journalist and mountain climber Jon Kraukauer was assigned to cover an Everest ascent expedition, and chronicle the experiences of people – some experienced climbers, some not - who paid a small fortune for the chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kraukauer was a member of one of three American-led climbing teams that would attempt to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. By the time the teams made their way back to Base Camp, eleven people had died on the mountain.

Kraukauer’s book describes the journey to Everest, the different people on the teams, the storm that scattered the group just below the summit, and the deadly aftermath. This book, among other things, seeks to rationalize the decisions and behaviors of some of the people in the group, and understand how so many died in such a senseless way. Kraukauer himself, because he was part of the team, isn’t an impartial witness, and the book doesn’t shy away from his own culpability – at least two of the deaths that occurred during the expedition were very likely a direct result of Kraukauer’s own actions.

There are two main draws to this book: first, you get a firsthand view of what exactly goes into an Everest expedition, so you never have to actually do it yourself (seriously, DO NOT CLIMB EVEREST. EVEN IF YOU DON’T DIE (and we’ll get to that) IT’S STILL A TERRIBLE IDEA), and then you get Kraukauer’s in-depth investigation of deaths that he himself may have been instrumental in. He also attempts to explain how a person decides to climb the highest mountain in the world, and why anyone would want to do this. For me, this was the only real weak point of the book, because despite Kraukauer’s best efforts, I never once thought to myself, yeah, climbing Everest sounds like a totally reasonable thing to attempt.

Seriously, Everest is bullshit and it was all I could talk about for days after finishing this book. For one thing, Everest isn’t even a difficult climb, if you look at it from a technical standpoint. It’s only hard because the high altitude will literally kill you – the climb itself is not hard. At one point, the team climbs a bunch of ladders that were tied to a rock face by a team back in the 1970s.

And another fun fact I learned from this book is that there are two main ways to die on Everest: first, you can lose your footing and fall into a crevasse, or just slide right off a fucking cliff, and die instantly from the fall. This is the easy way to die on Everest. The hard way is you get altitude sickness (which is a nice way of putting it – past a certain altitude, even if you have supplemental oxygen, your brain literally starts to die) and collapse, and can’t get up. And then your team just has to LEAVE YOU THERE, because they sure as hell can’t carry you down, so you get to just lie there in the snow, fully conscious, and wait to die. And then your corpse becomes a landmark, along with all the other dead bodies that are just SITTING UP THERE. (There’s a really good My Favorite Murder podcast episode where they talk about the bodies on Everest, and it is straight-up heartbreaking.)

Aside from examining his own role in the tragedy and getting others’ versions of what happened, Kraukauer also spends some time discussing whether it’s even a good idea for people to attempt Everest in the first place. Aside from the very real risk of death, Kraukauer also considers the ethics of employing local Sherpa guides, and whether supplemental oxygen ultimately helps or hurts climbers. And, on top of all of that, this book is essentially a murder investigation – Kraukauer goes over the events of the fateful day, interviews the other surviving climbers, and evaluates the decisions of the guides and what role they may have played in the tragedy. He manages to strike a good balance of not avoiding his own responsibility in the tragedy, while also reminding readers that he and the other climbers were suffering from severe oxygen deprivation, and therefore both their decision-making abilities and their memories are not fully functional.

It’s easy to read Kraukauer’s other book of tragedy in the wilderness, Into the Wild, with a certain degree of superiority. Christopher McCandless died because he was woefully unprepared to survive in the wild, and his lack of knowledge and naivety killed him. But, as Into Thin Air proves, you can be a seasoned professional with thousands of successful climbs under your belt, and still die because of one stupid mistake, because Nature doesn’t care. Anyone can (and does) die on Everest, and Kraukauer’s book examines, among other things, whether it’s worth it.

This book is honestly harrowing. I have to admit I never thought it wouldn't be, but the way that the author tells his story and that of those he was travelling with is quite haunting...

The story within these pages is that of the highest death toll on Everest up until 1996. This season was one of the worst for deaths because of one major storm that happened whilst most of the climbers were by the summit of Everest. There was a lot that went wrong, and a lot which couldn't be helped, but this book tells all and it was really thrilling and tragic to read.

I have to admit, I really don't want to talk too much about this as I think it's much better told from the author's own words and perspective, but it's a story that needs to be told. I don't think I would ever want to go climb a mountain after reading this though, because if it's even a tenth as terrifying as this sounds I wouldn't be able to cope!

I admire those who do manage to achieve the peaks, but this is a lesson in how dangerous they can be. Brilliantly written, terribly sad. 5*s