Ever since Everest Beyond the Limit came out on the Discovery Channel last year I have become an Everest junky so for my birthday Mary gave me Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air about the 1996 Everest disaster. I had some Everest books on my Amazon wish list, but this wasn't one of them but never the less I was extremely excited to get it and put down what I was currently reading to start it.

This book why tragic was one that I could not put down and then finally I had to pull an all nighter to finish it. Krakauer who was working for Outside Magazine at the time was sent to Everest to research guided expeditions and compare that to independent ones.

Guided expeditions were starting to become popular, at that time, and it was a highly competitive affair between the guiding companies. These guided expeditions received a lot of criticism from "true climbers" who thought it was a ticket to rich inexperienced climbers putting trophies on their shelves who didn't deserve them. Even today there still is underling resentment to guided expeditions in the die hard climbing community.

Krakauer does a great job in showing how these expeditions worked and how he had to adapt from a climber who was use to feeling out and reacting to situations to a client having to take orders from guides. He also shows how simple mistakes on Everest can lead to very horrific consequences and how extreme altitude compounds those mistakes.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the outdoors and/or climbing. I found myself enthralled with this piece of work that I have not felt since I read Lord of the Rings and I have to say while this one is non-fiction I felt some of the same emotions for the heroes in this book. Outside Magazine has the original piece he did online now at the following link [http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/199609/199609_into_thin_air_1.html].

- END -