Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

Into Thin Air is an absorbing account of the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster, when eight people died in a sudden blizzard on their descent from the peak. Krakauer also chronicles more generally the history of mountain climbing and the various reasons people have for climbing Everest, both honorable (“seeking something like a state of grace”), and not ("minor celebrity, career advancement, ego massage, ordinary bragging rights, filthy lucre”).