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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
* A really interesting collection of different expeditions and hiking stories
* Each chapter focuses on one trip/adventurer so it’s easy to pick up and put down without having to worry about forgetting anything
* Krakauer does a really good job of explaining the different aspects, risks, and rewards (personal and commercial) that each different type of mountaineering entails
* Each chapter focuses on one trip/adventurer so it’s easy to pick up and put down without having to worry about forgetting anything
* Krakauer does a really good job of explaining the different aspects, risks, and rewards (personal and commercial) that each different type of mountaineering entails
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
This book is a collection of pieces about mountain climbing that Krakauer has written over the years for different magazines. The articles are pretty specific to climbers and sometimes technical and probably of less general interest than Into Thin Air—-but I liked it nonetheless. I think people familiar with (and who like) Krakauer’s work will get something out of this.
This book is a series of essays or magazine articles. A few I skipped, over all I enjoyed the book. Some interesting stories if you like modern(ish) exploration. Some are about Krakauer's own travels, others are people he did articles on. He's a good writer, but he manages to make himself sound like a complete looser, to the point where I felt like he might be being a bit unfair to himself.
Quite a bit of profanity.
Quite a bit of profanity.
I would read a full book just about the Romanian guy who everyone tried to stop going up Denali without equipment, had to be rescued by plane, and then refused to pay for it.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
An excellent installment for my Armchair Alpinist Adventures. I particularly liked the chapters on Denali, canyoneering (though that one did leave me humming the Canyonero song for the rest of the day), and K2. If I ever graduate from armchair to real life, I can imagine myself getting wild enough to try Denail. Not Everest, and obviously not K2. That chapter left me gasping out loud. I know how deadly K2 is. I realized halfway through the chapter that it was only about people dying on K2, but I still caught myself hoping the people in question were going to make it at the last minute. (Spoiler alert: they don't. Don't climb K2. It's a bad idea. At the time the book was written, K2 was the deadliest mountain. Now it's only second deadliest, behind Anapurna I. So don't climb that one either. This has been a public service announcement.) And cayoneering? If anyone reading this knows ANYONE who does this, please give them my phone number. I will pay someone lots of money to take me on the kind of adventures described in this essay. If one can even still have such adventures, thirty years later.
What a page turner! And also the perfect book to drag along rock climbing or on a hike, which is what I did. I sat on a boulder and devoured this book until it was my turn to climb or belay.
Krakauer’s narrative style is simple and straight forward but still evocative in its description of nature because he doesn’t add anything superfluous, and that’s as it should be- K2, Eiger, Chamoix, etc., do not favor the superfluous, and they certainly don’t need anyone to dress up their reputations. He draws senses of awe and fear from his reader by telling it like it is, and if you’re the outdoorsy type of person you’ll get it. I have no desire to try and summit McKinley, but I understand.
Some of the information and “celebrities” are a bit dated as this was a collection of articles that he wrote in the 80’s but it’s a great look at the history of the sport, and the dangers that you might very well face today particularly the overpopulation on mountain peaks where few have earned the right to climb but many have paid to clutter up the slopes.
All in all I was very impressed with Krakauer’s writing style and his subject, and I look forward to reading more in the future.
Krakauer’s narrative style is simple and straight forward but still evocative in its description of nature because he doesn’t add anything superfluous, and that’s as it should be- K2, Eiger, Chamoix, etc., do not favor the superfluous, and they certainly don’t need anyone to dress up their reputations. He draws senses of awe and fear from his reader by telling it like it is, and if you’re the outdoorsy type of person you’ll get it. I have no desire to try and summit McKinley, but I understand.
Some of the information and “celebrities” are a bit dated as this was a collection of articles that he wrote in the 80’s but it’s a great look at the history of the sport, and the dangers that you might very well face today particularly the overpopulation on mountain peaks where few have earned the right to climb but many have paid to clutter up the slopes.
All in all I was very impressed with Krakauer’s writing style and his subject, and I look forward to reading more in the future.