In March , Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day, eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Senior entertainment writer Amy Kaufman covers film, celebrity and pop culture at the Los Angeles Times.
All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. Times Events. Times Store. Facebook Twitter Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I.
In , Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind.
Unlike the expedition, his story rushes irresistibly forward. But perhaps Mr. Krakauer's greatest achievement is his evocation of the deadly storm, his ability to re-create its effects with a lucid and terrifying intimacy. Gracefully and efficiently written, carefully researched, and actually lived by its narrator, it shares a similar theme with another sort of book, a novel called " The Great Gatsby.
To call the book an adventure saga seems not to recognize that it is also a deeply thoughtful and finely wrought philosophical examination of the self. Time collapses as, minute by minute, Krakauer rivetingly and movingly chronicles what ensued, much of which is near agony to read A brilliantly told story that won't go begging when the year's literary honors are doled out.
Krakauer's reporting is steady but ferocious. The clink of ice in a glass, a poem of winter snow, will never sound the same. And no book on the disaster is likely to consider so honestly the mistakes that killed his colleagues.
In March , Outside Magazine sent me to Nepal to participate in, and write about, a guided ascent of Mount Everest. I went as one of eight clients on an expedition led by a well-known guide from New Zealand named Rob Hall. On May 10 I arrived on top of the mountain, but the summit came at a terrible cost. Among my five teammates who reached the top, four, including Hall, perished in a rogue storm that blew in without warning while we were still high on the peak. The actual summit push is when everything begins to fall apart.
Rob Hall appoints a pm turn-around time, meaning that everyone who has not actually reached the summit by then must turn around, no matter how close he or she is. That day, only Krakauer and a few other climbers make it to the top before pm. Members of his group reach the top as late as pm—the turn around time is not enforced. Among the later arrivals to the top is Rob Hall and another member, Doug Hansen.
They arrive jus t behind another climbing group guided by Scott Fischer. A storm hits the summit that afternoon, and Krakauer catches only the tail end of it before he successfully reaches the refuse of Camp Four. Krakauer is well ahead of most of his teammates and has no idea what lies in store for them.
Hall and Hansen get stranded. Hansen runs out of supplemental oxygen and cannot continue. Another group gets lost in the blizzard and later, an assistant guide rescues all but two of them.
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