Into thin air (Hardcover)

On May 9th 1996, five expeditions launched an assault on the summit of Mount
Everest. The conditions seemed perfect. Twenty-four hours later one climber
had died and 23 other men and women were caught in a desperate struggle for
their lives as they battled against a ferocious storm that threatened to tear
them from the mountain. In all eight climbers died that day in the worst
tragedy Everest has ever seen.

Jon Krakauer, an accomplished climber, joined a commercial expedition run by
guides for paying clients, many of whom had little or no climbing experience.
In Into Thin Air he gives a thorough and chilling account of the ill-fated
climb and reveals the complex web of decisions and circumstances that left a
group of amateurs fighting for their lives in the thin air and sub-zero cold
above 26,000 feet – a place climbers call ‹The Death Zone›. Into Thin Air
reveals the harsh realities of mountaineering and echoes with the frantic
calls of climbers lost high on the mountain and way beyond help.