Into Thin Air

By Jon Krakauer

The author describes his 1996 Everest climb, in which eight climbers died.  A series of bad weather and small errors could have killed the entire expedition, especially since some of the climbers were not as fit for the climb as they maybe should have been.  The story also includes a rough history of why Everest is still known as "the ultimate climb".

Not really my first choice for reading material, but I was sucked into the humanity of the story.  However, the author is one of the few to survive, so he doesn't have a lot of people around to contradict him.  While it's true that the story demonstrates all the little mistakes that lead to huge consequences, which is typical of real life, I have trouble with him placing all of the blame on one person.  Climbing Everest has turned into a part of people's bucket list, and is not taken as seriously.  Plus, the weather turned bad without warning, so it seems flippant to blame the guides for every mistake.  I've read other books by Krakauer, and while I enjoyed them, I still don't believe everything he writes --- in fact, I rarely agree with his opinions.