Into Thin Air

In May 1996 eight people died on Everest during a single storm — the deadliest day in the mountain's history at that point. Krakauer was there as a journalist for Outside magazine. This is his account: the commercial expedition industry that had made Everest accessible to anyone who could pay $65,000, the decisions that were made on the mountain that day, the people who died and the people who survived and the question of whether those outcomes were determined by skill, luck, or who had the best guide. The most honest dispatch about what the commercialization of adventure looks like when it fails.