Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

81 replies

Allshallbewell2021 · 22/04/2024 14:02

For the second time.

Fascinating book about the disastrous season on Everest in 1996.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
LordSnot · 29/07/2024 17:37

After page 152. Very weird yours are missing!

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
DangerQuakeRhinoSnake · 29/07/2024 15:40

@LordSnot thanks that's the one I've got too. 2011 edition but no pictures (unless I'm going mad!) What page do they start on?

LordSnot · 29/07/2024 13:53

Which edition do you have? Mine is Pan Macmillan with this cover and has photos in the centre.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
DangerQuakeRhinoSnake · 29/07/2024 09:53

Just starting the book so not read all the comments yet but I do have a question.

In my book there is a list of illustrations at the beginning, however there are no pictures apart from a lino cut drawing at the beginning of each chapter, with no discernable link to the list given (which are all credited to different people).

Is my book missing some pictures?

Elebag · 26/04/2024 07:57

Never thought I'd hear the phrase "makes Alex Honold look pretty risk averse". I had to sit on the floor during free solo as my sofa felt too high 😳.

Crabble · 26/04/2024 04:50

BestIsWest · 25/04/2024 22:01

Oh yes, @HippyChickMama the Alison Hargreaves book was sad. Did you see the documentary about her son?

Also has anyone mentioned Free Solo?

Free Solo is incredible. I couldn’t believe what I was watching, and so beautifully shot.

for anyone who enjoyed Free Solo I recommend The Alpinist. It’s about a climber called Marc-Andre Leclerc who makes Alex Honold look pretty risk averse!

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 25/04/2024 22:36

Bestis - the film about her son 💔

OP posts:
BestIsWest · 25/04/2024 22:01

Oh yes, @HippyChickMama the Alison Hargreaves book was sad. Did you see the documentary about her son?

Also has anyone mentioned Free Solo?

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 25/04/2024 20:06

Thank you sandcastle, I agree sailing is a parallel fascination.
But not the Donald Crowhurst one! I can't watch the film - it's too sad a story.
*
Maiden* is a great film!

OP posts:
Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 25/04/2024 19:58

Oolong
All the different accounts are now merging in my head now. I have to watch the film again to remind myself what its narrative is.
What's interesting is how Boukreev gets such a negative spin from Krakauer and (to an extent) from Neal Beidleman about coming down fast on his own when he had agreed to this approach with Scott Fischer.
It's so fascinating.
Crabble 🫡🫡🏔️🫡

OP posts:
HippyChickMama · 25/04/2024 19:29

Mountains, especially Everest, are a bit of a special interest of mine, despite having no desire to climb anything more technical than Ben Nevis. There are a couple of good series on BBC Sounds:
The Crowning of Everest - about Mallory and Irvine
The Everest Obsession - about the commercialisation of climbing

Regions of the Heart, the biography of Alison Hargreaves is also an interesting read

SandcastleQueen · 25/04/2024 18:41

Absolute armchair mountaineer here too. I can recommend the Chris Eakin book " A Race Too Far" for a similar vibe and an incredible story but in the sailing world.

OolongTeaDrinker · 25/04/2024 18:32

I thought the people who wrote the Everest film clearly didn't like Krakauer as he was portrayed very unsympathetically.

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 25/04/2024 18:17

Schloss
I've just finished The Climb - wow, what an amazing perspective.
Krakauer - not correcting his copy! Shocking!

OP posts:
Crabble · 25/04/2024 17:31

@BestIsWest i am obsessed with the George Mallory mystery. He is my hero. What he and Irvine did was so much more impressive to me than the successful attempts of the 8000ers many years later.

(he definitely made it up 😎)

I also am fascinated by climbing and mountaineering despite being a very average climber myself. I have done various treks in Nepal including to Everest Base Camp and it is truly unbelievable.

corlan · 25/04/2024 17:24

I'm another one that's fascinated by Everest despite going dizzy if I climb a ladder!
I'm currently listening to Everest Inc by Will Cockrell. Very interesting run through of the commercialisation of climbing Everest that's just come out.

Curlewwoohoo · 25/04/2024 17:05

Oh nice thread! I read into thin air, touching the void and into the wild as part of the literature review for an essay at uni on the subject of 'perceptions of wilderness' back in about 2003?!

BookEngine · 25/04/2024 17:01

Should give an honourary mention to the Ascent of Rum Doodle which makes more sense when you've seen Scott of the Antarctica's grocery list.
It was still being name checked when I was in Nepal in'95

schloss · 25/04/2024 10:35

Blind Descent - Bruce Dickinson is a good read. I think the book about finding Mallory's body may be Last Hours on Everest by Graham Hoyland?

Original poster
Allshallbewell2021 · 25/04/2024 10:34

Thank you BestIswest.
It's my go to subject for no accountable reason.
Have you read 'mountains of the mind' by Robert McFarlane? So good.

OP posts:
BestIsWest · 25/04/2024 09:51

Into Thin Air is the book I’ve most recommended to others.

Just wanted to throw in a word for Into The Silence by Wade Davis. It’s a mammoth book about Mallory and early attempts on Everest. It took me ages to read but it’s a classic. I’ve read another book on the discovery of Mallory’s body but the name escapes me.

Remoteaccess · 25/04/2024 09:27

The IMAX film is brilliant, I too am obsessed by it all

helpfulperson · 25/04/2024 09:15

The film is amazing. It was one of the first made specifically for imax. It only mentions the disaster in passing playing down the significant input made by the filmmakers both by people and by making all equipment such as oxygen cylinders freely available to rescuers.

schloss · 24/04/2024 22:09

Allshallbewell2021 · 24/04/2024 11:40

Thanks Schloss - have you seen the IMAX film that was started in 1996? That must be amazing on a huge screen.

Slightly more visceral armchair mountaineering!

No not seen the IMAX film, I am sure it must be amazing though. Think I may stick to the books as the film may be too much like I was there and I am not too sure I would want to feel like that!

Some of the books on K2 and Annapurna are also worth reading, sadly many detailing deaths but in a less commercial environment than Everest. The info about high altitude climbing and the effects on the body are sometimes incomprehensible.