EIGER DREAMS: VENTURES AMONG MEN AND MOUNTAINS by Krakauer, Jon - 1997

Anchor, 1997. Paperback. Good. No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardship s more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essa ys and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspecti ve of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's not orious Devils Thumb. In Pakistan, the fearsome K2 kills thirteen of the world's most experienced mountain climbers in one horrific summer. In Valdez, Alaska, two men scale a frozen waterfall over a four-hundred-foot drop. In France, a hip interna tional crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out n ew ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do the y do it? How do they do it? In this extraordinary book, Krakauer presents a n unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the li mits of the possible. From the paranoid confines of a snowbound tent, to the thunderous, suffocating terror of a white-out on Mount McKinley, Eiger Dreams spins tales of driven lives, sudden deaths, and incredible victories. This is a stirring, vivid book about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits.