Mountain Madness

During a company book sale last year I picked up a non-fiction book called Into Thin Air.  I hadn't heard of it before; it's written by a reporter who witnessed firsthand the disaster on Mt. Everest in 1996 as the group of climbers he was with were trapped near the summit due to a sudden snow storm.  It would become the deadliest climbing season in the history of Everest.  The back cover had quotes like these:

"Ranks among the great adventure books of all time"

"A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgement..."

"virtually defines excellence in the genre of narrative nonfiction"

So I decided to get it, thinking it might make a good gift.  Wendy had other plans, though:  she'd heard of the book, knew it was really good, and had wanted to read it for a long time.  In addition, she remembered the news stories about the disaster when it happened, and had vivid memories of seeing the survivors being rescued.

On our recent trip to Phoenix, she brought the book along and almost finished it during the 4-hour flight.  "It is utterly absorbing," she said.

I decided to read it on the flight home and it hooked me in.  I didn't finish nearly as fast as Wendy, but I was just as enthralled.  It is a very harrowing read.  Afterwards, we talked about all the amazing things from the book (and there are many).

The most amazing thing I got is just how huge Mt. Everest is.  When we lived in Colorado, we had a great view of Long's Peak, which is 14,259 feet.  If you doubled the size of Long's Peak, it still wouldn't match Everest, which stands at 29,028 feet.

But the author of Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer) had even better ways to express it:

1.  The peak of Mt. Everest is at cruising altitude for some jetliners.
2.  Everest is so high that for most of the year it pierces the jet stream!  This creates a contrail of ice particles steaming off the peak.  Twice each year, during the spring and fall, the jet stream moves north of Everest, and that's when most summit attempts happen.

It dawned on me last week that it's spring now, so there are probably groups climbing the mountain right now and blogging their experience.  Here's one such group I've started following:

http://peakfreaks.com/everestnews2011.htm

Finally, much to my surprise, right after I finished the book, Jon Krakauer appeared in the news again, this time for alleging the book Three Cups of Tea is a fraud.