Quicklet On Jon Krakauer S Eiger Dreams Ventures Among Men And Mountains Cliffnotes Like Summary Analysis And Review

No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant hardships and victories more brilliantly than critically acclaimed author Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest work from such magazines as Outside and Smithsonian, he explores the subject from the unique and memorable perspective of one who has battled peaks like K2, Denali, Everest, and, of course, the Eiger. Always with a keen eye, an open heart, and a hunger for the ultimate experience, he gives us unerring portraits of the mountaineering experience. Yet Eiger Dreams is more about people than about rock and ice—people with that odd, sometimes maniacal obsession with mountain summits that sets them apart from other men and women. Here we meet Adrian the Romanian, determined to be the first of his countrymen to solo Denali; John Gill, climber not of great mountains but of house-sized boulders so difficult to surmount that even demanding alpine climbs seem easy; and many more compelling and colorful characters. In the most intimate piece, “The Devils Thumb,” Krakauer recounts his own near-fatal, ultimately triumphant struggle with solo-madness as he scales Alaska's Devils Thumb. Eiger Dreams is stirring, vivid writing about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits.

Quicklets: Your Reading Sidekick! ABOUT THE BOOK Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer is an anthology of articles published by various magazines during the mid-to-late 1980s. This collection consists of his earliest works, predating the books that launched him to the top of the bestseller list: Into The Wild (1996), and Into Thin Air (1997) Krakauer does an admirable job of addressing the central issues so even the casual hiker can appreciate his passion, as climbing is a sport that can be hard to appreciate without spending a good deal of time hanging around climbers. Krakauer skillfully avoids getting too wrapped up in technical terms and esoteric knowledge; his narrative voice is well-developed. He has an elegant writing style that carries the reader like a raft floating along a deep river. A skilled wordsmith, he likes long and sometimes complex sentences yet he puts them together so skillfully you rarely lose the point. What makes the stories so accessible to climbers and non-climbers alike is Krakauers ability to place the human element at the front and center of each tale. MEET THE AUTHOR Anita Tsuchiya is el presidente y peon of Sabaku, Inc., a marketing services company that provides writing, editing, research, analysis and consulting for a diverse assortment of clientele. The loves of her life are split into two seasons: during the fall/winter she pursues a degree in Japanese language, and spends spring/summer joyfully immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of minor league baseball. A retired speed-freak and super-jock, her current life is moderately active. She grew up in the Bay Area of California, and her almae matres include San Leandro High and U.C. Davis. In fact, she remembers what San Jose looked like before Silicon Valley. Now happily settled in Salt Lake City, Utah, she shares her home with a pair of mixed-mutt bundles of canine goodness named Molly and Linus. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Krakauers strength as a writer lies in his ability to personalize the many characters who populate the sport of climbing. He gives us folks we can relate to on a human scale even if we dont quite understand their odd fixation with danger. Thanks to his skillful portraiture, it doesnt take long to start wondering: whatever happened to those outrageous Burgess twins? Has Richard Fisher come out of hiding from the gullies of Arizona? Did Adrian the Romanian finally make it to the top of Mt. McKinley, and more importantly, did he make it back down in one piece? The Burgess boys managed to survive their youthful indulgences. They even wrote a book about their adventures, climbing and otherwise. And theyve lost none of their cheekiness, as they point out in the acknowledgement, We especially thank those who held regular jobs so that civilization, as we know it, didnt fall apart while we went climbing. Buy a copy to keep reading! CHAPTER OUTLINE Quicklet On Jon Krakauer’s Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains + About the Book + About Jon Krakauer Article Summaries + Eiger Dreams + Gill + Valdez Ice + On Being Tentbound + ...and much more

ABOUT THE BOOK When I first read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, I was enthralled and amazed. The story he tells about a doomed Mt. Everest expedition in 1996 is both thrilling and terrifying, and it also has a lot to say about the problems with the commercialization of adventure expeditions on the highest mountain in the world. It’s a well-researched and extraordinarily well-written first-hand account of the tragic expedition, and Krakauer’s excellent storytelling makes for gripping reading. Not only was he a member of this expedition, but he knows how to tell a story - how to introduce characters, build drama, and describe situations. He also has a gift for researching and writing history. When I first read Into Thin Air, I was prompted to read everything I could get my hands on about Mt. Everest. You could spend several years reading through this material, since there have been many books published about Mt. Everest, including several about this same disaster. Reading as many as you can will throw you into a fascinating, complex, and sometimes contradictory world of adventurers, scientists, business people, Tibetan and Nepalese guides, socialites, swindlers, politicians, artists, dreamers, and many other characters - as well as the frigid and challenging character of the mountain itself. Whether this is your first or fiftieth foray into the literature of Mt. Everest, you won’t be disappointed by Into Thin Air, and it will certainly draw you into its subzero spell. MEET THE AUTHOR professional writer Vivian Wagner has wide-ranging interests, from technology and business to music and motorcycles. She writes features regularly for ECT News Network, and her work has also appeared in American Profile, Entrepreneur, Bluegrass Unlimited, and many other publications. She is also the author of Fiddle: One Woman, Four Strings, and 8,000 Miles of Music (Citadel 2010). For more about her, visit her website at www.vivianwagner.net. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Into Thin Air (1997) began as a 1996 article for Outside Magazine. Krakauer wanted to develop the story more fully, however, and thus was the book was born. He’d originally been assigned to examine the commercialization of Mt. Everest for the Outside article. That ended up being the focus of the story after all, but with a much more tragic outcome than he or his editors could have imagined. For the article and subsequent book, Krakauer joined an expedition led by Rob Hall’s Adventure Consultants. During that season, a number of other expeditions were also on the mountain along with Krakauer and Hall, including Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness. Both Hall and Fischer were killed in the May 1996 disaster, along with six other climbers. Since its publication, Into Thin Air has been at the center of controversy surrounding Krakauer’s account of events, particularly in regards to questions about who was responsible for tragic errors made on the mountain. Much of the initial criticism of the book came from the Russian climbing guide Anatoli Boukreev, who disputed Krakauer’s depiction of him as neglecting his mountain guide duties. In response to Krakauer’s book, Boukreev published his own account of the tragedy, co-authored by G. Weston DeWalt, called The Climb (1997). In postscript to a later edition of Into Thin Air, Krakauer took up this debate and defended his account of the tragedy against Boukreev’s criticism. Buy a copy to keep reading!

Krakauer takes the reader to wonderful, awful peaks like Denali, the Eiger, Devil's Thumb, K-2 and Everest.

Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is the true story of a 24-hour period on Everest, when members of three separate expeditions were caught in a storm and faced a battle against hurricane-force winds, exposure, and the effects of altitude, which ended in the worst single-season death toll in the peak's history. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day, eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.One of the inspirations for the major motion picture Everest, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Keira Knightley.'Into Thin Air ranks among the great adventure books of all time.' - Wall Street Journal'A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism.' - People