Spanning an extraordinary range of subjects and locations, these ten
gripping essays show why Jon Krakauer is considered a standard-bearer of
modern journalism.
His pieces take us from a horrifying avalanche on Mount Everest to a
volcano poised to obliterate a big chunk of Seattle; from a wilderness
teen-therapy program run by apparent sadists to an otherworldly cave in
New Mexico, studied by NASA to better understand Mars; from the notebook
of one Fred Beckey, who catalogued the greatest unclimbed mountaineering
routes on the planet, to the last days of legendary surfer Mark Foo.
Bringing together work originally published in such magazines as The
New Yorker, Outside, and Smithsonian--all rigorously researched,
vividly written, and marked by an unerring instinct for storytelling and
scoop--Classic Krakauer powerfully demonstrates the author's
ambivalent love affair with unruly landscapes and his relentless search
for truth.