Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and MountainsNo one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious 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 international crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out new ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do they do it? How do they do it? In this extraordinary book, Krakauer presents an unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the limits 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. |
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Adrian airplane Alan Alaska alpinist Alps altitude Anye Machin ascent avalanche base camp belay beneath bivouac boulder Burgess called canyon Cessna Chamoniards Chamonix Chouinard cliff climbers clouds crampons crevasse death Devils Thumb Diemberger Eiger EIGER DREAMS expedition fall Fisher flying foehn French front-pointing gear Geeting Gill glacier height higher than Everest Himalayan hundred feet ice axe ice climber ice climbing ice screw icecap JON KRAKAUER Kahiltna landing later ledge Lhotse light looked Marc McKinley Messner miles minutes Mogollon Mogollon Rim Mont Blanc mountain named night Nordwand north face Okonek overhanging paragliders peak pillar pilot pitch plane pulled Ragone reached Reeve ridge rock Rouse route says seracs Shelton Sherpa sleeping slope snow solo sport steep Stikine Icecap storm summer summit Talkeetna tent things thousand feet trip turned twins Valdez vertical wall Wallerstein waterfall weather wind