Book description
No 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.
