Jon Krakauer writes well, and Into Thin Air is probably his
finest book. Tapped to climb Mount
Everest in 1996 to write a story about the then new trend in guided ascents up
the mountain, Krakauer witnesses the deaths of several
climbers and guides in a blizzard, and nearly dies himself.
Even seasoned climbers die on Mount Everest. Its summit is in the jet stream. The human body was not designed to climb to
29,029 above sea level. Even with oxygen
and trained guides, accidents and bad weather kill climbers.
They may be no other reason to read this book than the sheer
entertainment of it; and this despite the fact that people die, and Krakauer
depicts those deaths in detail.
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