Favorite beach read 2010

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

This book was very hard to put down. Krakauer's accounting of the disaster on Mt Everest in 1996 was heartbreaking, frustrating, exhilirating and terrifying all at the same time. I nearly came to tears at least a half-dozen times.

The quote by People magazine on the back of my copy is pretty perfect, "A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism."

The book is so well-written that I felt like I was there. I could almost feel the hurricane-force winds, the windchill of one hundred degrees below zero, the climbers' exhaustion as well as their fear and determination. I didn't realize there were photos in the book until I reached them over half-way through, and I was surprised to find that I had already pictured each of the climbers in my mind almost exactly as they appear in their photographs.

What I could not understand was how anyone would willfully expose themselves to such a grueling experience, much less pay someone $65,000 to guide them to the summit of Mt. Everest. (Bear in mind that many people who pay for such guidance do not successfully reach the summit. Among Krakauer's five teammates who made it to the top of the world, four of them never made it back down).

My inability to conceive of any rational person attempting to summit Mt. Everest was strengthened by the photos of the actual climb.




The introduction and the postscript provide further details surrounding the disaster. The postscript especially reveals Krakauer's survivor's guilt. The candor with which he describes his own lack of judgment and responsibility for the anguish caused by the losses on that fateful day in May of 1996 is indeed selfless and refreshing. I sincerely applaud his bravery and honesty in exposing himself to ridicule, although I feel any ridicule he has faced or may still face is misplaced.

The photos above were copied from this site. I believe the photos were taken from the illustrated edition of the book. The section on Into Thin Air also provides further details about the book and the 1996 disaster.