Eiger Dreams

 

Product Details

This is one of Jon Krakauer's earlier books and although most notoriously known for Into Thin Air this book is in the same vein and is just good old fashioned armchair mountain reading... excellent way to ride out a storm in a tent.

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: The Lyons Press (February 10, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599216108
ISBN-13: 978-1599216102

Amazon.com Editorial Review

No matter what the actual temperature may be, several pages into Eiger Dreams you will begin to shiver. Halfway through you will acquire a new appreciation for your fingers, toes, and the fact that you still have a nose. And by the end of this collection, you'll define some commonly used phrases in an entirely different way. The understated "catch some air" and the whimsical "log some flight time" are climbers' euphemisms for falling, while "crater" refers to what happens when you log some flight time all the way to the ground. "Summiting," the term for reaching the top of a mountain, seems almost colorless in comparison. The various heroes, risk-takers, incompetents, and individualists Krakauer captures are more than colorful, whether they summit or not. The author is more interested in exploring the addiction of risk--the intensity of effort--than mere triumph. There's the mythical minimalist climber, John Gill, whose fame "rests entirely on assents less than thirty feet high," and the Burgess brothers--freewheeling, free-floating English twins who seem to make all the right decisions when it counts, and hence most often fail to reach the top. Of course, they are alive. Over these and other talented climbers hangs a malignant, endlessly creative nature--its foehn winds can make people crazy and its avalanches do far worse. Eiger Dreams is an adrenaline fest for the weary, an overdue examination of a stylish, brave subculture. As one of the heroes Krakauer outlines says of his occupation, "It's sort of like having fun, only different."

Available

Amazon.com ($10.17)

http://www.amazon.com/Eiger-Dreams-Ventures-Among-Mountains/dp/1599216108/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263445442&sr=8-1#noop

Powell's Books ($14.95)

http://www.powells.com/biblio/8-9781599216102-0

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