La Febre del cim : crònica d'una tragèdia a l'Everest (1997)

In the spring of 1996, freelance journalist Jon Krakauer is chosen to join a expedition of paying guests who are climbing up to the summit of Mt. Everest. As an experienced mountaineer, he knows that the trek up the world's tallest mountain will be difficult and dangerous, but even he doesn't seem prepared for the huge physical and mental toll it takes on him and his fellow climbers. Then, an unexpected blizzard on the mountain makes everything even worse. Krakauer is left with the haunting feeling that he could have done more to save others’ lives.

Although I was a little bogged down by the mountaineering jargon and large cast of characters, I found reading this sad, instructive, engrossing account of a doomed expedition very helpful. I have a whole new appreciation for the warmth and oxygen available at lower altitudes. ( )

Amazing. A great author and a gripping story. ( )

Wow. Mountain climbing fascinates me, Everest fascinates me, disasters fascinate me. I am not a climber so the idea of tackling these mountains - especially Everest - is so compelling. I only want to be an armchair traveler to a place like this and I feel that those people that can go there in person and not just in spirit are a pretty impressive bunch.

The movie is coming out soon so I read this book to be prepared. Who lives? Who doesn't make it? I remember this disaster happening but it was fairly vague in my mind and now, of course, there have been more recent tragedies.

I did not want to put this book down. It reads like a magazine article to some extent. Jon also seems to be under a black cloud of premonition throughout the entire expedition like he knew something bad was going to happen. I'm not sure if that was hindsight and that's how he has had to write this or if it really was apparent there were things going seriously wrong. Regardless of the journalistic prose and the obvious ending, it was a page turner.

I never realized how much this messed Jon Krakauer up until I read the introduction. Surviving a disaster that many people did not live through must be horrifying. Coming home and having to write about this and facing all the public backlash would be tough. I didn't realize that all of the survivors ended up having to deal with negative repercussions for being on this expedition and also for being written about by Jon.

I've read a little bit about Malory and now I'm off to read more about Everest - learning more about the mountain and about this disaster in particular.
( )

I remember when the Everest disaster of 1996 occurred--an excerpt of Krakauer's book appeared in Reader's Digest, which I *loved* reading as a kid. The story itself is both fascinating and tragic. While I have never had any desire to climb any mountains or attempt Everest, the sheer scope of the story itself captivated me. The IMAX film released in 1998 fueled my fervor even more, but it's taken years for me to read the entire book itself. Krakauer is a fantastic writer; he can transport you to the Base Camp, the Summit, or the South Col with the power of his writing. There are plenty of lessons we can take away from this disaster, but the postscripts and the after-story itself provide an even different lesson: how and why we interpret events, people, and decisions the way we do, and how our documentation can affect the public eye. A must-read, and one I will likely return to for teaching and personal engagement. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14812717

I don't remember where I saw the recommendation for this book but I'm glad I did.

I know nearly nothing about mountain climbing and I certainly have never aspired to it. If I had, I might have second thoughts after reading this book. It really does take a certain type of person: not just strong and capable but also willing to face death. Most sports do not require that you give your life, and of course climbers don't plan to do so, but they have to consider the risks.

Krakauer was offered the chance to climb Everest in a guided team so that he could write about the effects its growing popularity is having on the people living there - the Sherpas - as well as on the climbers themselves and the region. Krakauer, therefore, needed to be a client of a professional guide, rather than part of an independent team. He chose Rob Hall, owner of Adventure Consultants, a New Zealand-based guide company, based on his expertise and guiding record.

Krakauer is an avid climber whose wife would rather he weren't. She wants him around for her and for their children. Climbing is an obsession, though, and he seems to share it with others, particularly top climbers. He had wanted to climb Everest since he was a boy and there was little chance he could afford the high fees and expenses by himself.

Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. It is subject to wild variations in weather from the bottom to the top, as it is about five miles from sea level. Even more, the increased altitude means dangerously thin air the closer one gets to the top.

Thus most climbers and guides use oxygen in the last stages, to avoid the dangerous effects of low oxygen levels in the body. What quickly became clear to me as I read this account of a climb up Everest with a wide range of fellow clients and guides and with encounters with several different and widely varying other teams, is that climbing these super tall mountains is painful. The cold, the thin air, the tricky rocks, all take a huge toll on a body.

The details of a climb up this mountain are worth the book by themselves. I felt I got a good sense of what it was like in a way that I hadn't appreciated before. But the real story is of the expedition itself, in April and May of 1996, and of all of the factors that led to a total of twelve deaths on the mountain.

Even though I knew from the start that people died, I still worked my way through the narrative with held breath at times, as the story is well paced. Krakauer doesn't satisfy himself with relating what happened, though. He addresses the many factors contributing to the disaster, and discusses briefly what might be changed to prevent other similar occurrences. In the telling he does question the behavior of one guide in particular, a guide employed by another company, Mountain Madness. This part of the book was challenged by that guide along with his co-author, who wrote another book, disputing several of the facts laid out in Krakauer's. At the end of this edition of the book (1999 - the original was published in 1997) is a postscript explaining the conflict that arose between the authors of the two books and subsequent actions. I found this postscript revealing and gripping as well.

The story is well documented and researched. Krakauer provides context with a history of Everest and its explorers, which I found invaluable. ( )