"Into Thin Air" article in September 1996 issue of Outside

"Everest a Year Later: False Summit" interview with Jon Krakauer in May 1997 issue of Outside

"Everest a Year Later: Lessons in Futility" article in May 1997 issue of Outside

Jon Krakauer on tour

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, hard cover

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, audio cassette

Into the Wild, hard cover

Into the Wild, paperback

Into the Wild, audio cassette

Eiger Dreams, paperback reissue

Eiger Dreams, audio cassette

In the spring of 1996, writer Jon Krakauer, author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Into the Wild, undertook an assignment for Outside magazine to address the question of whether anybody with enough money and time should be allowed to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. Prompted by the proliferation of guided trips promising that any reasonably fit person could make it to the top of the world, Krakauer — an accomplished outdoorsman and technical climber, but with little experience at high altitude — jumped at the chance to attempt this mountaineering grail.

But disaster struck on summit day when a blinding, whiteout storm caught four groups on top of the mountain, claiming the lives of nine climbers, including Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, two of the most renowned guides/climbers in the business. Krakauer, through a combination of luck, skill, and discipline, was fortunate enough to survive, though the experience extracted a heavy psychic toll. Immediately, the tragedy at 29,000 feet became the focus of intense worldwide media scrutiny, and the cause for much soul searching within the mountaineering community.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is one of the season's most highly anticipated books. Krakauer employs all his considerable skill as one of our foremost chroniclers of the wilderness experience to tell a story of ambition, greed, celebrity, and sheer irrational desire, played out against the elements on a monumental stage.