viniciusbehenck

Another fabulous book by Jon Krakauer. This is actually his first book from way back in 1990, six years before the Mt. Everest disaster. This book is a collection of essays about different climbing locations. It contains two first hand accounts of him climbing the Eiger in Switzerland and the Devil's Thumb in Alaska when he was 23. He also tells fascinating stories about the history of climbing at K2, El Capitan in Yosemite, canyoneering in the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, and Mt. Blanc in France where mountain climbing first began as a sport in 1786. He gives great in-depth analysis of the personalities of people climbing each of those places and what unique things each place has to offer. There is so much drama in the history of climbing with people scrambling to be the first to climb a particular mountain from a particular route. There is an emphasis on ice climbing and rock climbing up sheer cliff faces as opposed to climbing up Everest which is like a long hike. It's amazing to hear a description of someone climbing up a several thousand foot high cliff face without any safety ropes and not being sure if the ice or rock is even sufficient to hold him anymore. It's really quite bizarre but an amazing thing to read about, especially since it is something that only the tiniest fraction of the population will ever experience.

2023-02-26 00:04