Ventures among Men and Mountains
My brother’s favorite book in college was Into Thin Air (1997), and it was his recommendation that first got me interested in the outdoor adventure novels that still thrill me. That book, which I loved, led me to Piers Paul Reade’s Alive, which let me to Earnest Shackleton’s Endurance, etc. etc. The adventure stories have piled up for me over the years, but this book now stands out as one of my favorites.
Jon Krakauer’s first book, Eiger Dreams, is a collection of articles he had published in various outdoor magazines, and each is related in some way to mountaineering or other forms of skilled climbing. In some chapters, he touches on key peaks like K2, El Capitan, and of course the Eiger. In others, he emphasizes climbing styles like bouldering, canyoneering, or waterfall climbing. In all, he describes the people that make up this eclectic segment of the world’s society and the somewhat deranged love they have for a sport that could just as easily kill them as fulfill them.
I am not a mountain climber, and I’ll conveniently use my overly muscular legs as an excuse as to why not. It’s definitely not the fear of heights, or the fact that I hate the cold, and would rather not die in an avalanche chasing a dream I’ve never really had. No, it’s definitely my legs that keep me off the ropes. Instead, I enjoy hiking, like jumping up the boulder field at Devil’s Lake State Park in WI or checking out the rainforest trails in the tropics. The day-trip, no-risk-of-freezing, little-chance-of-dying type of “mountaineering” is way more my speed. And yet, I love reading about the real thing.
My favorite chapters in this book include Chapter 2 about John Gill, the mathematician who invented the sport of bouldering, tackling freestyle “impossible” chunks of rock no larger than 30 feet. I learned a lot in this chapter about devotion and risk, and it put a new spin on the concept of “rock climbing” for me.
I also enjoyed Chapter 11 which covers the terrors of K2 and is but a single-chapter taste of what one can find fully developed upon Everest in Into Thin Air. According to Krakauer, at least in the season he climbed, for every two climbers who reached the summit, one died. Talk about high-stakes gambling!
I also loved Chapter 12, the final chapter and the only one not originally published in a magazine. Krakauer recounts one of his first serious climbs, a twenty-day solo climb up The Devil’s Thumb in Alaska, a climb that nearly killed him at age 23 but that also gave him perspective on climbing and on life in general.
Throughout the chapters, Krakauer delves into the intricacies of climbing the psyche required of the folks willing to accept the risks. He also shares a bit of the history behind mountain climbing and all its newer variations. But behind it all, he also shares the philosophical underpinnings that would drive addicts to behave in such a crazy, risky fashion. Although 25 years old now, this book remains both educational and entertaining and I think will be a timeless classic of mountain-climbing lore.
I’ve got one friend in particular who’s got the crazy gene and who has climbed a number of amazing peaks. I’ll be recommending this book to him, though he’s probably read it already. I recommend it to anyone who considers himself outdoorsy, though adventure junkies in particular should find extra pleasure in it.
©2021 E.T.
Read More from John Krakauer:
- Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer (1990)
- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (1996)
- Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (2003)
Read More about Mountaineering:
- Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (1988)
- Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer (1990)
- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (1996)