Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer. 

4/5 rating.

Book #145 of 2019. Read December 23, 2019.

This was an interesting collection of some of Jon’s writings for different outdoor magazines.

I imagine that my immense enjoyment of the book has to do with having a month before I go climb Kilimanjaro, but it’s worth a read all the same. Jon includes writings on places as varied as Everest, K2, Mont Blanc, Mt. McKinley (Denali), and Arizona.

If you want to read about the insane people that mountain climbers are, the massive amount of deaths the sport has caused, and some of Jon’s different climbs made, go check out this book. Maybe you’ll find it gives you the push to go be a little more adventurous!

Quotes from Eiger Dreams:

“In a series of highly publicized experiments, test subjects were placed in a small room painted a shade known as ‘Baker-Miller Pink.’ Within fifteen minutes of entering the pink chamber, say the researchers, the subjects’ muscles were tranquilized to the point of weakness, and there was a dramatic reduction in ‘violent, aberrant, aggressive, and self-mutilative behavior’ in criminals, paranoid schizophrenics, and ‘obstreperous youths.’”

“In the United States, skiers take it for granted that natural hazards, if they exist at all, will be carefully fenced off, marked with signs, or otherwise rendered idiot-proof. In Chamonix personal safety is rightly seen as the responsibility of the skier, not the ski area, and idiots don’t last long.”

IG Link.