May 11, 1996 has come to be given the title of the “1996 Mt. Everest Disaster”, because on this day eight people lost their lives in a single afternoon on the world’s tallest peak. Author Jon Krakauer was attempting the summit that day, and this memoir, written very shortly after his climb, is a riveting account of the lengths to which people will go in order to stand on the apex of the planet.
This book is part history, part culture of climbing, and part adventure journal, but beyond all else it is a tale of the fragility of mankind when measured against the force of a mountain. Mr. Krakauer bares his soul, opening the door to a world to which only a select few can truly relate and a day that brought nightmares and survivor guilt to those who made it off the mountain.
This audio was riveting. Usually, the quickest way to have me re-shelving an audiobook is to see that the author does the narrating. In my experience, authors should stick to writing. But the intensely personal nature of this particular memoir gave me the feeling that no one could tell this tale quite like Jon Krakauer himself. I highly recommend listening to this story in the voice of the man who lived through it.
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