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Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains

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Manufacturer: Anchor
Brand: Liberty Mountain
List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $10.93
You Save: $ 3.02 ( 22% )
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Average Ratings:

In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, the bestselling author of Into the Wild writes of mountains and the daredevils, athletes, and misfits who climb them, from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's Devil Thumb and experienced the ravages of a storm atop Mt.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Brand: Liberty Mountain
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522
EAN: 9780385488181
Is Autographed: 0
ISBN: 0385488181
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 186
Publication Date: 1997-05-19
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 1997-05-19
Studio: Anchor


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Into the Wild
• Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
• Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
• High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: thrilling collection of great adventure stories
Comment: Eiger dreams is a quality collection of short stories that covers many of Jon's personal climbing adventures and a few other character profiles. I particularly enjoyed the one about the bush pilots in Alaska. This is Jon's first book, and most of the stories have been previously published in Outside Magazine. They are written with a great style and provide the reader with hours of armchair adventure. Dancing on the Edge of an Endangered Planet

Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, But No Close to "Into Thin Air"
Comment: This book is written by the best selling author Jon Krakauer. He was the author and participant in the Everest disaster in 1996. He wrote about his experiences in "Into Thin Air." This was also an excellent book and was better than this work. Eiger Dreams is a collection of numerous articles that Jon Krakauer has written over the years that have been published in various magazine. This causes the book to have some excellent chapters and so weaker chapters. Also, this causes the book to jump around some on various mountain climbing topics. The book becomes more interesting as it goes deeper into the pages. The last few chapters are excellent. If you liked "Into Thin Air", you will enjoy this book but just not as much.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Krakauer does it again
Comment: Eiger dreams is an excellent compilation of short stories that follow the pioneers of extreme alpine sports(bouldering, climbing, parasailing, glacier piloting, etc.). I would say that this compilation is on par with Into thin Air and Into the Wild. Both of which are must reads. This book will make you want to get outside and explore places you have not been to and make you want to push yourself beyond your limits. I highly recomend this book.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Tasty Leftovers
Comment: I was impressed enough by INTO THIN AIR, his '97 account of the previous year's Everest climbing disaster, that picking up a used copy of EIGER DREAMS was a done deal. I didn't pay enough attention when buying it, however( at a local used bookstore) to learn that it was a compilation of climbing-related stories he'd previously published in 'Outside', 'New Age Journal' and 'Smithsonian'. I have nothing special against collections of previously published work. If I haven't read the material, what's the difference? But, as a writer myself, they always make me nervous somehow. Maybe it's the image of the writer badgering his agent about getting the cash flow flowing again and the agent placating him with, 'Why not pick some stories that aren't doing you any good anymore, the rights to which have reverted, and see if we can't make'em work the second time around?'

The included stories, with two exceptions (to me), are good, solid tales of blue ice and heartless rock and the maniacs who love both in vast quantities ... and vertical. They vary widely in specifics within that overall focus. Think of them as 'climbing canapes'. The two (out of 13) that put me off were a personality piece about two male climbing twins and juvenile delinquents, The Burgess Boys, and A Mountain Higher Than Everest?, a, to me, tedious examination of the history of the science of 'triangulation' or whatever gauging the height of mountains entails.
I heartily recommend that anyone lured by the image contained in 'Eiger Dreams', the title, skip'em.

I like Krakauer's writing persona and his style of reportage, but I'm not thunderstruck. I'm glad I picked it up for $6 in paper. I KNOW I'll read 'Into Thin Air' again, but 'Dreams' may be really yellow before it's opened again. The former, in fairness, had mainly to skillfully report a place and event that provided every conceivable element of breathtaking(excuse the pun)drama, high (see previous apology)tragedy and a worst case example of what happens when too many people abandon reason, common sense and a saving humility, preferring to let blind obsession become their guiding principle. And they all managed to do it, somehow, in the same place, at the same time.
After reading that, damn near anything would fall shorter.

I concede that that tale was a hard act to follow. It only followed it for me, however, having been published in 1990, six years before the catastrophe on Everest took place.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Amusing
Comment: This is an amusing conglomeration of climbing stories. Humor, greed, suicide, and sheer bravery all included in these stories. Parts of these traits could be in a single story depending on which stage of the climb you are in. Written well, and it seems to put you right in touch with the climbs. However, through fault of the writer or of the storytellers themselves some of this seems to be a bit over the top. He could have been a mixing it up for entertainmnet value or for some other reason. But it should still be read by anyone who is into climbing.

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