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Summary: An Exciting Read But Flawed
Review: I, too, enjoyed the yarn weaved by Jon Krakauer regarding this tragedy but my enthusiam was tempered by his license with factual events and denigration of Anatoly Boukareev. A more accurate depiction of the events that occurred that fateful May can be found in "Toly's" book, The Climb.If you have read Krakauer's version of what took place, you will find The Climb a raw, exciting comparison to the events that occurred on the mountain. Don't stop with just a reading of Krakauer's book; your understanding of what really happened will be enhanced by a reading of both accounts.
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Summary: The best Everest book I have read
Review: This book captures you in the first page and do not decrease the pace as it goes. I feel that I am really on top of the world. Excellent read, no unnecessary dramatization, pure narration of what has happened. Jon is a very candid writer. You can understand the mindset he went through while reading through the pages. A must read
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Summary: Great 1st read if you're intrigued by Everest...
Review: A great book for someone who likes an adventure read and is interested in what is involved in climbing Mount Everest. Less philosphy and verbal elegance, perhaps, than some books on Everest - its not poetry - but gives a great 1st hand perspective of the ordeal, while providing a backdrop of other climbing teams and some history of the Everest challenge. I stayed up all night reading it. It's a somber story in the end, but realities at 8K meters are harsh, not poetic, it seems. Everest afficiandos may critique it harder...
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Summary: A good example of what happens when men attempt to...
Review: ...conquer nature. Those left behind on the mountain learned the hard way that we are not here to conquer the world, but to co-exist with it. The attitude alone of some of the climbers was enough to ensure that they weren't going to come back, and Krakauer's account gives a good feel for what happened and I respect him for writing it as it happened and not trying to glorify those who put ego and stupidity above common sense and respect. Fascinating look into the nature of the extreme adventurer, and a good reminder to never, ever lose your respect for the power of the natural world. ~Yasmine Galenorn, author of Embracing The Moon~
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Summary: Excellent detail account from a survivor
Review: If you like adventure or survival stories, this is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: I just finished this book last night. I closed the cover and just sat there exhausted. This is the best book I've read in a long time. He makes it feel like you're almost there with them. The pictures in this edition here seem to add to the realism too. I'm not a climber, so some of the terminology got by me, but not that much. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: An Astonishing story of survival
Review: We've probably all seen the sort of adventure movies where the hero, finding himself in a tight spot, says, "So, this is Hell." Jon Krakauer's book, one of the most validate intangible experiences any book has given me, he introduces us to a Hell that keeps getting worse. Krakauer, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. In this novel it starts out with telling us too much. He starts out telling us that he has already made it to the top of the mountain. " Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched over a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet." By him doing this my guess would be he wanted us to know up front that he had summited and his journey of terror was just beginning. From there it goes onto to talk about the history of Mount Everest. The reasoning behind this is Jon Krakauer is trying to show the reader that Mount Everest is a very demanding mountain and it has claimed the lives of many people. It then goes to Jon Krakauer's conversation with the editor of Outside magazine. This is the magazine Jon writes the article on Everest for. After this conversation he is on the next plane to Nepal for the Everest expedition. Once the expedition was on the book starts to get a little boring at times. Jon Krakauer tells us about the expedition and how Mount Everest is so beautiful. This goes on for about a hundred pages. But once they get near the top of Everest something catastrophic happens. A blizzard is coming down the mountain. A blizzard at this high altitude is extremely dangerous because the winds can get up to 200 mile per hour and with the wind chill it can drop temps well below zero. The head guide of this expedition Rob Hall told everyone before they were to summit that they need to be back to the camp before 2pm because of the incoming storm. When Jon Krakauer had reached the top it was May 10th and he had not slept in 57 hours, and with not having enough sleep combined with oxygen depletion he had started to get very careless. When you are at very high altitude and without enough oxygen it is very deadly and the human brain cannot function properly. When Jon and the his team where coming down from reaching the top he asked one of his teammates to turn down the oxygen to save for the long journey back down, but he had turned the oxygen full blast. Now as it is getting late and everyone is still trying to summit and there is a storm in on the horizon, Jon is in a position of survival. In this novel the main purpose was to write an article for a magazine he worked for. But he was caught in a catastrophic storm that forced him to go with his instinct instead of his oxygen-depleting mind. Jon Krakauer's experience he will always remember, he tells us in the authors note that this experience has changed him in some way. It had showed him something about himself. It showed him that with the will power to survive you could survive anything. This is what I feel the theme of the book is. In life you go through obstacles that will hold you back from something that you crave, something you need. In this case it is his life. He had been to the top of the world it is his will power and determination to bring him back down, this is what you need to overcome obstacles in life the will power and determination to want it whatever it may be. Personally, I enjoyed this book. I have always liked these types of survival books because it tells us first hand experience on what they did to survive. Now when the story like in this book really happened it made the story that much better because it really happened and you get the emotions that they were feeling at that point and time. Jon Krakauer is a great writer, I thought that his writing was easy to follow and it gave you a good idea of what the characters were feeling and at the same time what was going on around them. To give you all a sense of how the author writes and to give you all a sense of his writing style I will give you as little exert from the novel. " Harris who'd left the summit shortly after I did, soon pulled up behind me. Wanting to conserve whatever oxygen remained in my tank, I asked him to reach inside my backpack and turn off the valve on my regulator, which he did. For the next ten minutes I felt surprisingly good. My head cleared. I actually seemed less tired than I had with the gas turned on. Then, abruptly, I sensed I was suffocating." In conclusion I hope I did not ruin the book for anyone by going too far in depth, but I do encourage anyone who enjoys reading survival books like this one to pick it up and read it. It is a great book and with Jon Krakauer's descriptions and emotions it almost makes you feel like you are there with him on the Everest expedition.
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Summary: Powerful, Passionate, Palpable...
Review: This book is not designed to be a thriller or an adventure read--it is a harrowing true-story memoir, and deserves to be treated with the due respect. After reading this I was stunned by the honesty of the writing and the horror of what happened. I didn't want to believe that it was true, that people had to turn their backs on the dying to preserve themselves, that 29,000 feet up there was no room for altruism, that climbers were allowed to slip into death and remain frozen on the cliffs. It speaks loudly and clearly of man's pride and pain, and questions whether we should embark on such ego-building adventures at all. Utterly stunning. I hope you find your peace Mr. Krakauer, I truly do...
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Summary: Riveting
Review: It was late at night in a snow covered condo in Vail. All was quiet. This book was on the coffee table, dog-eared, with a bookmark. I opened it up to the marked page and read the heart-wrenching story of a man on a mountain talking to his wife in New Zealand, naming their unborn child, and knowing that he would not survive the night. I spent the night and then some reading the book. And I have read everything about that climb that has been written thereafter. This is the best book of its genre that I have ever read. If anyone knows of a better one, I'd like to know about it. Start reading this only when you have a lot of time to read, because you will not be able to put it down.
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Summary: Required reading for obessessed over-achievers
Review: This is definitely one of the best of the adventure books I have seen. I bought the book on an impulse but that turned out to be a good decision because I read it straight through. After reading it, I am glad that I never succumbed to an attraction in youth to take up mountaineering, because I am pretty sure that it would have killed me. The risks and the pain and suffering are too great. Jon Krakaurer writes a good book, appealing to those readers who know nothing about mountaineering. The 1996 Everest disaster shows how obessession with achieving a goal can lead to poor judgement and ultimately to disaster and death. Mountaineering by its very nature attracts people who are determined to achieve their goals and who have a high tolerance of pain and suffering - precisely the type of people likely to persevere and end up in trouble rather than turn back to safety. But in an environment as dangerous and unforgiving as Everest at high altitude, climbing in `the death zone' above 7500 metres, mistakes and poor judgement simply are not an option. Two team leaders, both experienced climbers, continued to climb to the summit long after the deadline for returning safely to camp had passed - both died, along with a third guide who went back to assist. Another experienced senior guide climbed without oxygen, a radio or equipment, then bugged out after reaching the summit and left a junior guide to bring back inexperienced and exhausted climbers through a hurricane while he sat in his tent drinking tea. Weak climbers were let burn themselves out climbing to the summit, leaving them too exhausted for the descent. Some died, others were lucky to survive - the survival of one climber who was left for dead for a night and a day in a freezing hurricane was a miracle. Somehow, he managed to find enough strength to walk back to the camp, then survive another night of exposure to extreme cold when his tent was demolished in another storm. If that guy was a cat, he would have used up a lot more than his nine lives. Like most disasters, a series of mistakes and misjudgements compounded on each other until a catastrophe resulted. The 1996 Everest disaster was virtually inevitable, it would have happened sooner or later and it will probably happen again.
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