Between the Lines


By Larry Burke, Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Although it still feels near to us, this month marks the first anniversary of the worst tragedy in Mount Everest's history, when eight climbers died in a storm that stole onto the mountain's upper reaches; ultimately, the season claimed 12 lives. As readers will recall, contributing editor Jon Krakauer was on Everest for Outside, there to report on the dangerous proliferation of inexperienced climbers buying their way to the summit. His account of the debacle generated more response than any story we've ever published — reaction that continues today. In fact, Krakauer's article was recently named a finalist for the prestigious National Magazine Award for reporting (Outside received two other nominations as well, in the categories of General Excellence and Special Interests). With the publication this month of Krakauer's much anticipated book Into Thin Air (Villard), the timing seemed right for Outside editor Mark Bryant to sit down with Jon and talk about the things that readers continue to ask us about: Jon's life since Everest, the state of alpinism in general, and mountaineering's culture of risk. Their revealing, provocative conversation ("False Summit") is accompanied by a disturbing report from Outside correspondent and accomplished alpinist Greg Child on what's been learned — and what hasn't been learned — from last year's deaths. Also contributing is photographer Andrew Eccles, one of America's leading portraitists, who created the cover image of Krakauer in Washington's Cascades.

Writer Thomas McNamee immersed himself in the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction program for three long years, bent on producing the definitive story of that historic project. The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone, to be published this month by Henry Holt, is the impressive result of his effort. One particularly grisly episode from those years — the slaying of what may have been the program's finest animal — forms the basis of McNamee's article, "The Killing of Wolf Number Ten." It's a true crime story with an ironic resonance for the topic as a whole, as McNamee notes: "Most of us carry a certain amount of guilt about the wounds our ancestors inflicted on wild nature. And in this case, we actually remedied a mistake. That's profound." London-born artist Sue Coe, an ardent animal-rights advocate whose haunting illustrations have been exhibited at Washington's Hirshhorn Museum, illustrates the piece.

"The story of my life has been the story of trying to get into great water," explains longtime Outside contributor John Jerome, a comment borne out by the tale of his return to the scene of his first boyhood love — passion focused not on a human form, but an aqueous one. In this month's Field Notes column we learn what became of that love, for an Oklahoma river called the Mountain Fork.

When we asked Paris-based writer Dana Thomas to spend some time with prickly French cycling champ Jeannie Longo ("Diabolique,"), she knew that cozying up to the world's greatest female racer wouldn't be easy: Longo's reputation as an ice-woman is legendary. But after five years as an expat in France, Thomas has gleaned a few insights into the suffer-no-fools-gladly Gallic character — which helped her find a kernel of admirability beneath Longo's competitive husk. "True, you wouldn't put her on a box of Wheaties — she frowns too much," says Thomas. "But Longo goes at it full-force, all the time. And if you're not helping her — if, say, you're a reporter — then you're a distraction and ignorable as such."

Philip Weiss ("Truth Be Told, They Lied,") splits his days between Manhattan and the town of Cold Spring, in the Hudson River Valley, his jumping-off point for backpacking in the Adirondacks. An active outdoorsman, wildly competitive tennis player, and accomplished essayist (his work appears regularly in Harper's and the New York Observer), Weiss seemed the logical writer to examine the phenomenon of lying about outdoor achievement. He's at work on his second novel, The Ranther, which concerns "cryptozoology in the New England woods." At least that's what he told us.