Classic Krakauer: After the Fall, Mark Foo's Last Ride and Other Essays from the Vault

by Jon Krakauer

The gripping articles in Classic Krakauer, originally published in periodicals such as The New Yorker, Outside, and Smithsonian, display the singular investigative reporting that made Jon Krakauer famous—and show why he is considered a standard-bearer of modern journalism. Spanning an extraordinary range of subjects and locations, these articles take us from a horrifying avalanche on Mt. Everest to a volcano poised to obliterate a big chunk of greater Seattle at any moment; 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. Rigorously researched and vividly written, marked by an unerring instinct for storytelling and scoop, the pieces in Classic Krakauer are unified by the author’s ambivalent love affair with unruly landscapes and his relentless search for truth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Adventure, Outdoors, Nature, Travel, Climbing

ebook

First published February 27, 2018

About the author

Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing.

https://www.facebook.com/jonkrakauer

Reviews

[Janette Mcmahon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The articles were interesting and I enjoy Krakauer's writing. What would have made the collection more relevant would have been to provide an update to what he had reported on.

[Barbara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first began reading Jon Krakauer when I picked up a copy of Outside magazine at an airport kiosk sometime in the early 90’s. By the time the plane landed I had committed to reading anything I could find by him.

Krakauer excels in both short form and long form journalism, with topics that are almost always tied to the natural world, especially mountaineering, an activity at which he himself excels. And because his writing generally reflects his personal opinions, observations or experiences, he frequently ends up in the midst of controversy (see Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, Into the Wild or Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town). But he’s never boring.

And that holds for these articles, collected for the first time in this book. The subtitle is “Essays on Wilderness and Risk”, and if you aren’t interested in what drives individuals to pursue extreme activities (competitive surfing, rock climbing, scientific exploration, or mountaineering), many of these pieces would be of no interest to you. There is one exception: “Loving Them To Death” has much to say about parent-child relationships in contemporary America generally.

Having finished this collection, I think I might be ready to tackle the few of his books that I haven’t read as yet.

[Lee Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brain seemed kinda loogied with temporary situational stessors and pre-holiday seasonal affective disorder so I figured I'd run for the hills of comparatively easier non-fictional mountaineering reading in my native language, inspired to read this collection by a recent review I saw on here that reminded me of an interaction with a clerk at Prairie Lights this summer once we made it out to Iowa City before heading back east -- the clerk in his late teens or so made really consistent eye contact and was patient and kind to my daughter who seemed interested in telling him all about airplanes and whatever else she wanted to say at the time, and we then wound up talking about working in bookstores at his age, he was saving to travel, I told him about how I'd traveled solo in Central America 30 years ago for a few months and it was an important trip for me etc, he said he was inspired by Into the Wild by Krakauer, which I'd read maybe 27 years ago and really liked but for some reason I'd never read Into Thin Air, which the kid strongly recommended. So that was in my mind when I ordered this, generally feeling that I was in good hands, reading journalism that appeared mostly in Outside -- the first one on big wave surfing was probably the most engaging (I felt like I'd read it before, long ago) but all of them seem to read themselves after a page or so. Krakauer really excels writing about the solo or small group approach to/engagement with nature. Great bear confrontation scene too. A respectful four stars for how these pieces helped decongest my spirit as hoped.

[Jenn "JR" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read from NetGalley -- a collection of Jon Krakauer articles from the 1990s from a variety of publications. The topics vary widely - mostly outdoors, mostly men and seem to focus on the risk of death from the power of nature. "Mark Foo's Last Ride" is about the death of a legendary and accomplished surfer at Mavericks; followed by a tale of the risks of living near active volcanos from debris flows (forget about lava eruptions; the inequality and risk on Mt Everest; stories of deaths of participants in the hands of outdoor guides -- both climbing and at-risk-youth programs. The only two stories that don't talk about actual deaths are the story of a search for rock-eating bacteria during a warm, sticky underground caving campout; a profile of a cantankerous 70 year old Alpinist, and an Arctic backpacking trip.

The stories all feature Krakauer's distinctive, descriptive prose style -- though I find the word Brobdingnagian a bit over-used -- it was a thoroughly enjoyable collection of articles. One change I might make would be to provide more context at the beginning of each chapter since they often refer to time points in the past without reference to the publication date (so "nine years ago" is really 34 years ago!).

ORIGINAL URL: http://www.livegreenwearblack.com/201...

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

[Heino Colyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first time reading Krakauer and WOW - what a writer. The articles in this collection were written between the mid 80s and 2014, and the consistency of the quality of his writing is amazing. I found every single one of the articles to be incredibly engaging - from the last days of a legendary big wave surfer to problematic wilderness therapy programs for troubled youths. There was also a fair share of nature just killing people, sometimes with some... guidance (?) from other people. Fascinating book. Loved it.

[Tanja Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of essays on varying themes. Some of them more interesting than others, none of them particularly relevant today. Because the essays are all on different topics, there is no cohesiveness at all.

[Brendan Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Krakauer is one of my favorite writers of non-fiction. He's right up there for me with other names you've likely heard of such as Erik Larson and John Berendt. I don't think there's anyone who writes about wilderness and the outdoors as well as Krakauer does, and even if you've never read him you're likely familiar with Into the Wild and Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster because both have been turned into films (though "Everest" — a film largely inspired by "Into Thin Air" — lacks that book's intrigue and tension).

So when I saw that Anchor Books had assembled a collection of Krakauer's essays into a collection, I eagerly picked it up.

It doesn't matter what the subject is, every essay in this collection draws you in. I've never surfed, but Krakauer's account of the last days of surfer Mark Foo was captivating, as were the multiple essays in here dealing with rock climbing, despite my not being a climber, or architecture, despite ... well, you get it.

Of all the essays here, though, the one that really stuck with me was "Loving Them to Death." Originally published in 1995 in Outside Magazine, LTTD really got my blood boiling. Here Krakauer tackles the subject of "wilderness camps" for troubled youth, which was a sick fetish among mainly evangelicals back in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s (I think that the popularity of this sort of misguided interventionary method has largely faded in popularity since, or at least I hope it has).

While there are plenty of genuine villains featured in this essay — I'm thinking particularly of Lance Jaggar, the sadistic leader of a wilderness camp called "North Star" — much like that Michael Jackson documentary that came out last year, you can't help but want to smack the parents of these kids. Yes, I get that your kid is troubled and may have serious issues re drugs or whatever, but if you need to enlist a couple of burly fellows like Jaggar to "extract" (i.e. kidnap) your kid out of bed one morning and drag him to the middle of a wilderness where he'll spend the next 63 days being forced on a death march through the desert, maybe it's time to reevaluate whether you should be a parent.

What I would have liked more about this collection is if it had included a bit more follow-up, considering that the majority of these pieces were first published 25-35 years ago. As it was, I had to get googling to see what became of Jaggar and all the other child abusers who were brought to court following the death of a kid enrolled in their program (sentenced to community service ... seriously??).

I love the line that Krakauer takes with a parent of one of the kids enlisted in Anasazi, a program similar to North Star's, during a five-hour trip en route to a camp where the parents will be reunited with their "reformed" kids.

"I am vividly reminded that troubled kids are sometimes the product of seriously haywire families. After listening to one father — a self-important doctor from Kansas — pontificate smugly for much of that long ride, I wonder whether the child of this pathetic man would have been better served had Dad been shipped off to Anasazi instead of Junior."

Let's hope that Krakauer keeps dishing these out for many more years!

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can just tell that these pieces were written by a talented writer. Personally I have no interest in surfing or volcanoes or mountain climbing but when I was reading Krakauer's articles on these subjects I found myself fascinated. My favorite articles were definitely After the Fall and Loving Them to Death. After the fall had some interesting commentary on,frankly,people's stupidity and willingness to blame anyone (sue them in court) but themselves. Loving them to death was hard to read at times. It talks about wilderness camps that promise to reform troubled youth and all the horror that goes on in those places. A brutal article, I had to take breaks while reading it because I was fuming with anger.
I only wish there was additional information included about the fate of some of these stories. Most of the pieces were written in the 80-90s,a lot of time has passed since then. I would love to know what happened with the case against some people from the Loving them to death,if they received any punishment for their actions.
Thank you to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Anika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am I interested in cave exploration? National parcs in Alaska? Old men climbing virgin mountain routes? Not really. But, to quote Nick Hornby: "The non-fiction bestseller lists frequently prove that we all want to know more about everything, even if we didn't know that we wanted to know - we're just waiting for the right person to come along and tell us about it.". And Jon Krakauer is just the right person to make me read about all these topics and more while simultaneously starting a googling frenzy and wondering why I hadn't known before.

So even though the topics of this collection might not seem that interesting based on your personal preferences, Krakauer makes reading about these things worthwhile. He just knows how to plot - and not just in his long books, but also in the short form. The collection includes nine articles written from the early 1990s til the mid 2010s. In a way, they all deal with adventure seeking individuals (or, in one case, individuals forced into "adventures") - and they're all good. My favourites of this really good collection:

- Mark Foo's Last Ride: About the death of the infamous big wave surfer while riding the extreme waves Mavericks in Northern California. I was familiar with the topic because I'd seen the movie Riding Giants a few years back. The story circles not only on Foo and his death (recklessness or freak accident?) but also gives a pretty good overview on the history on surfing, especially big wave surfing and when, how and why it transformed into a marketing wonderland. This latter aspect reminded me of how Krakauer pointed out the exploitation of Mount Everest in Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster.

- Descent to Mars: This is the story about this huge underground cave in New Mexico where scientists go to explore what life could be (or could've been) on Mars. The cave has been more or less sealed off from the outer world and thus offers a whole new ecosystem. But the description alone freaked me out: "There is no weather in the cave, no natural horizon, no noise, no sunrise or sunset, no way to tell what time it is, what day, what year." Imagine spending days in there - uh, no, thanks. But thanks to Krakauer for going down there and telling us about it!

- Loving them to Death: About "tough love" wilderness boot camps for troubled teens. Where teens die, because besides the tough love approach, there's not much strategy behind it, let alone qualified therapists or guides. It's a (true crime) horror piece, classic Krakauer indeed.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Krakauer by Jon Krakauer is a very highly recommended collection of nine pieces written for various publications, including The New Yorker, Outside, and Smithsonian. As Krakauer notes "Most of the short pieces I wrote during the years between Eiger Dreams and Into Thin Air vanished into the crevices of time and have been forgotten. But Anchor Books has retrieved seven articles from this period, plus two more recent essays, and rescued them from oblivion with this new collection.." Personally, I recall reading several of these articles originally in the Smithsonian; they are what lead me to seek out anything written by Krakauer.

The articles include:

Mark Foo’s Last Ride: Mark Foo was a big-wave surfer who "made no bones about his thirst for fame or his strategy for achieving it: ride the world’s biggest waves with singular audacity and do it when the cameras were rolling." His last ride was the Mavericks in northern California, a surfing location at the end of Pillar Point Harbor, where some of the world's largest waves can occur.

Living Under the Volcano: Mt. Rainier poses a serious threat to thousands of people who live in the shadow of the mountain. Geologists warn that the volcano will erupt again, but there is no way of knowing when that will happen. A serious threat is the fact that lahars (flash floods of semiliquid mud, rock, and ice) can happen spontaneously, and would roar down the mountain with destructive speed and power.

Death and Anger on Everest: Russell Brice of a company called Himalayan Experience, or Himex, shocked climbers when on May 7, 2012, he made an announcement that, for safety reasons, he was pulling all his guides, members, and sherpas off the mountain. When a couple years later the ice bulge Brice was concerned about did break lose, starting an avalanche that killed sixteen, all whom were Nepalis working for teams. This has instigated sherpas demands for better compensation and other benefits based on the risks they take.

Descent to Mars: Located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, just a few miles from Carlsbad Caverns, Lechuguilla Cave is a forbidding vertical shaft that you have to rappel down and then negotiate a labyrinthine of passages as you go even lower. NASA scientists are along on the expedition studying the microbes they hope to find there based on the fact that life on other planets might be microbial and would have have to derive its energy entirely from mineral sources, or eat rocks, and this kind of life could exist on earth in Lechuguilla Cave.

After the Fall: Two years after the unexpected, bizarre mountain climbing accident that killed a man, a law firm brought suit against the climbing instructor, the school, and the company that manufactured the climbing equipment (that the deceased used incorrectly) on behalf of the victim’s widow.

Gates of the Arctic: In 1980, eight and a half million acres of the Brooks Range in Alaska was set aside as the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. This park is a vast, untouched wilderness that contains no roads, trails, or campsites.

Loving Them to Death: After a young man died during wilderness therapy program, it was clear that his death was not an accident. His journal showed systematic abuse and neglect by the staff. This begs the question about oversight for these programs and the people who run them.

Fred Beckey Is Still on the Loose: "For longer than I’ve been climbing, for longer than I’ve been alive, the most talked-about piece of writing in the sprawling literature of mountaineering has been a mysterious tome known as the Little Black Book." This book, written by Fred Becky, is rumored to be a list of the planet’s finest unclimbed mountaineering routes.

Embrace the Misery: "Lately you've found yourself wondering if the end of civilization might be at hand... [Y]our current angst should be dismissed as unwarranted paranoia. Most people in your privileged Western milieu have spent their entire lives inside a bubble of peace and prosperity, but to believe 'la dolce vita' will continue forever is delusional. Sooner or later, the party always ends. Every great civilization since antiquity has gone into decline, and you can’t really pin the blame on entropy. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the second law of thermodynamics, but in ourselves."

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/0...

[Bookphenomena (Micky) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

Please amuse me for a moment as I thrust a non-fiction read under your nose. I have been and still am to some extent, an avid reader of climbing, mountaineering and expedition non-fiction. With a love of the mountains myself and some amateur climbing in my back pocket, I do love to read about the big, adrenaline-edge climbs. Jon Kraukauer has journaled and recorded his way through some amazing experiences, and his INTO THIN AIR is one of my favourite books.

This collection of his articles and essays on wilderness and risk were a great read and my favourites were those that featured mountain peaks and extreme conditions. However, these essays feature extreme surfing, predicting eruptions and lahars with a doomsday feel, the ethics and liability of high alititude climbing, caving and much more. Those I favoured include: Living Under the Volcano, After the Fall, Loving them to Death

Krakauer narrates this stories with balance and seeming accuracy but there is also a thread of challenge and investigation through many of these stories which I really appreciated. He had a way of drawing you into these stories, bringing a human lens to extreme achievements, disasters and tragedy. His narrative was always engaging. Some stories made me feel a rightful anger such as Loving Them to Death, told with factual narrative of bullying and gaslighting a young person to their demise, elicting such emotion in this reader.

If you’ve never read Jon Krakauer, this is a good starting place to dip your toe into. There are such a range of topics to these essays that some and probably most will appeal to you, as they did to me. If you’re a fan already, you’ll love this.

Many thanks to Knopf Doubleday for this early review copy.

This review can be found on A Take From Two Cities here.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

sorry to be a bro, but I think he’s a good writer! krakauer calling half moon bay a “backwater” …feels good to be recognized. essay on wilderness schools for trouble teens is one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever read.

[Karen]

A collection of essays on many topics from magazine writing over the years, so not as compelling as his longer works. But still, always, entertaining to read. Krakauer likes his edges and margins, his extreme environments and his bro-dudes. And he’s also a very accomplished man of Uncomfortable Pursuits. He climbs, he spelunks, he talks to Christopher Alexander. A fair read.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC for review - to be published March 2018.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a real grab-bag of (mostly) old magazine essays on various topics, the oldest from 1985, and mostly from 1992 to 1996. Topics range from an architect's profile (avoid), but are mostly outdoor stuff, his specialty. Some are still great. Others, not. Sadly, with rare exceptions the author didn't update the outcomes to the present (2019 book).

But when Krakauer connects, and the topic is timeless, he's great. My favorites were his essay on the Gates of the Arctic national park (which he first visited in 1974). He has a great anecdote of his grizzly encounter then. He went back around 1994, and a paragraph updating to 2018 or so would have been welcome. But his piece gives the flavor of this enormous wilderness, that I have never visited and never will. 4+ star read for this one.

"Ouutlaw" climber Fred Beckey is profiled in this 1992 essay, and he's great. You will learn why he wasn't asked to join onto the US expedition to Everest in 1963. A classic piece, and a highlight of the collection. 4+ stars!

And "Living Under the Volcano," about the hazards of living in the Seattle-Tacoma megalopolis below Mt. Rainier, is another classic. The real hazards are the massive mudflows that will come glooping down when the thing goes off. Which it will: active volcano, a fourteener looming above the city: the Mountain. It won't be pretty. But the thing is well-monitored, and the US is rich. Have pity on the poor folks in the Andes (and elsewhere) who face this stuff and die by the thousands.

So, if your library has the book (likely they do), worth starting with these three, then see what else might catch your fancy.

Or, you could start with his better essay collection, "Eiger Dreams" (1990). Similar age essays, but these held up well: pure mountaineering. Here's my 4+ star review from 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A safer bet, I think.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

really enjoyed my only qualm is that my copy of this went to page 150 and then quite literally started over at the title page. god bless libby and the greater phoenix digital library for allowing me to finish it. anyway. had never read any krakauer before and now i’m a fan. i get the hype. gasped out loud when i turned the page to the wilderness therapy piece and then gobbled that up

[Simon Arneberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book to read if you're ever on a 45-hour Amtrak to Washington, about to start a really big adventure. It's strange how many connections there were between the content of this book and the things we experienced / people we talked to on our bike trip.

Favorite quote: "The fact that admission to this Eden requires a toll paid in sweat, pain, and fear makes its beauty all the more intoxicating." (p. 100)

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work shows the range of Krakauer’s writing. He knows how to tell a story. I’ve only read his books so was surprised to find this gem filed with some of his articles from the 80s and 90s. If you enjoy his books and his storytelling, you will enjoy this read.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading and loving Jon Krakauer's stories about extremely risky endeavors, especially mountain climbing since he wrote for The Rolling Stone when it was a newspaper and not a magazine. These essays were written in the 1990's. Entertaining, quick reading.

[Peter Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this short collection of Krakauer’s earlier feature article writing, since I certainly missed it all the first time around.

He’s a very talented and passionate writer, as he is a researcher, and his early skill at investigative reporting is on display here as he covers a diverse range of outdoors related stories, accidents, profiles, and more.

For anyone that’s a fan, including me, you won’t find as much personal perspective in these pieces (read Eiger Dreams for that) but you’ll read the writing that shaped his books later. For others, this is a great introduction to his style and interests.

[Jeimy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Krakauer excels at writing about the great outdoors and the people who embrace its challenges. Every time I pick up one of his books I know I will get lost for hours at a time getting to know the people featured in his texts. He not only makes his real-life characters come to life in the page, but also describes them in such a way that the reader is emotionally invested in their plights.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I love Krakauer. Therefore it should come as no surprise that I love this collection of essays. The most meaningful for me were "Mark Foo's Last Ride", "Death and Anger on Everest", and "Love Them to Death." The first of these is about a freak accident involving legendary big wave surfer Mark Foo, which led him to drown while surfing Mavericks on the California coast. The second is about an accident on Everest where an overhanging area of ice collapsed onto the Khumbu Icefall and killed 16 climbing sherpas in 2014. It is the largest single day loss of life in Everests's history, far larger than the loss of life during the 1996 storm that Krakauer made famous in Into Thin Air. It also got less attention because it involved local climbing personnel rather than high profile, Western clients. The last article that stuck with me may be the most poignant. It questions whether tough love wilderness programs for troubled teens work and if there is enough oversight where their methods are concerned. Krakauer was prompted to write this after the 1994 death of Aaron Bacon, a sixteen year old boy who died when an ulser he acquired on a trip run by North Star Expeditions ruptured, causing a massive infection that killed the teenager. Throughout his ordeal Aaron kept a journal that clearly showed that the staff of this particular outfit mistreated him and accused him of lying or faking it when he tried to tell them he was really sick. Over the course of a month in the wilderness, Aaron went from 131 lbs to just 108 lbs. He became incontinent and by the end he was too weak to stand. Yet rather than taking him to the emergency room like sane people, his counselors taunted him and took away his few meager possessions, including his blanket and sleeping bag, leaving him to sleep alone and exposed out in below freezing weather in the Utah desert. The shear cruelty of these people is mind blowing as is the fact that the guy who ran the outfit had been accused of negligent homicide before, but had gotten off because he served as a witness for the prosecution. The rest of the essays are good, if not as memorable. Worth the read.

[Amy St.Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I love about Krakauer is how he manages to surprise me with the way he can make anything an intriguing read. I was fascinated to learn about topics such as: Scientists studying the potential of life on Mars by examining corrosion residue in a hard-to-reach cave in New Mexico. The unattainable desire to protect Gates of the Arctic National Park, one of the last preserved parts of the American wilderness (as of the 70s), from being harmed by human foot traffic. The unorthodox building methods of architect Christopher Alexander, which did produce beautiful results, but annoyed clients and other architects with their tedious nature.

Subjectively, the highlights of this collection of essays were "Loving Them to Death" and "Fred Beckey Is Still on the Loose". The former is a horrifying and sobering look into certain teen wilderness camps and the outright abusive ways in which they're run. The story zoned in on Aaron Bacon's tragic experience at one of these -- I cried reading about his homesickness and loneliness he felt while being so severely mistreated by the camp counselors. Additionally, it emphasizes how his parents (and many others) were completely fooled into thinking their rebellious children would be "transformed" by the camps' methods. The latter describes mountaineer Fred Beckey, whose true love was climbing challenging mountain routes that had not been climbed by a person before. He had no house, no job, no committed relationships, only a sole focus on uncharted ascents. It was so interesting to read about a person whose passion for climbing was the highest priority for his 94 years of life.

This is the third work I've read by Krakauer, and I'm looking forward to adding more of his books to my collection.

[Evan Optional · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always loved Jon Krakauer’s writing. While his book Under the Banner of Heaven— his look at violent Mormon polygamy and a shocking double-murder — was great, I’ve been drawn more to his work that takes us to the edge of Mother Nature’s blade, where you can find terrible beauty just as easily as pain and death.

Krakauer instills a sense of reverence to nature’s fury and a stark beauty to wild places, whether it’s towering heights, massive waves, or the unsettling dark of Earth’s underground.

This book is a series of articles he wrote for a variety of publications between 1990 and 1996. Some of the standouts tackle a journey into the bowels of the Earth with NASA scientists, the life of legendary climbing bum Fred Beckey, the deadly last ride of big wave surfer Mark Foo, and the heartbreaking story of Aaron Bacon.

The Aaron Bacon story - Loving Them To Death- truly unsettled me. The kid died at a wilderness program meant to reform troubled teens, but Krakauer exposes a world of greed, sadism, and torture that makes the blood boil.

I think this would be a good introduction to Krakauer as each story is unique, short, and accessible while teetering on profound.

I think anyone can get into Krakauer’s brand of adventure journalism here if you’ve never read him before.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have previously read several books by the author, Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild being my favorites. Although I have quite a few of his books still on my bookshelves that need to be read. This book, Classic Krakauer, is a collection of articles written by the author that span a wide variety of people and places, from Mount Everest to a cave in New Mexico. One of the many things I enjoy about the author's writing is that he can and does write about such a wide variety of topics. I believe most of the essays or articles in this book were originally published in newspapers or magazines. Like some other reviews I have read, the one thing I would change would be to provide a slight background or better dates with each of the essays. Most of these were written in the 1990's so when the author refers to the past in the articles, it is actually much longer than when the article was actually written. I have always enjoyed Krakauer's writing style and look forward to reading the rest of his published works in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an ARC of this book.

[Jerry Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a few modern day authors whose work I will pick up regardless of the subject because I greatly value their prose and string style. Krakauer is one of those (Erik Larson and Bill Bryson are too) and it is fortunate for me that I also find the subjects JK tackles tend to align with my interests also.

This book is actually a collection of his essays/articles written for publications in the 80s and 90s primarily. As such, they cover ground that is rapidly receding into the mists of time with the death of Mark Foo for example, probably only really being remembered amongst surfing aficionados these days. However, as always, JK is a joy to read. I have thoroughly enjoyed all his thought provoking, sympathetic and razor sharp writing in his longer works, and the skill he employs to achieve such great prose is certainly on display here

I have to be honest and state that I am conflicted by collections such as this. I love the fact that one can move from one account to the next and cover a lot of ground, but I am often frustrated that each essay necessarily lacks the depth of coverage, and nuanced examination possible in a longer work. This is not a criticism of the author or the book, but sometimes I wish there was more ground covered. Another positive is, however, that one can always research and bring oneself up to date as I have done after reading a number of these essays.

I learned a lot here. There were things I knew nothing about, and now feel I do. As with all great writers, JK really opens up worlds for us with a rare skill. I very much enjoyed this book and it is short at less than 200 pages, and also written in a way that makes it a page turner too so it won't take you long to read. Most of the stories touch on well versed subject areas for Krakauer namely; the great outdoors, extreme sports and most obviously, mountaineering. It is a great read and I recommend you consume this work by Krakauer - he is a master writer and journalist in my opinion.

[Emily Constance · Rating 5 out of 5]

The full title of the collection - "Essays on wilderness and risk" - suggests that these stories would be about the risks one faces in the wilderness. But it seems as if the running theme of each of these essays has more to do with the risks that come with *losing* wilderness and 'wildness'. How much riskier modern society is to our wellbeing than the sea, or the mountains, or the slopes, or the caves... "Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"
This collection explores, among various dangers, how the media or 'Kodak courage' often compromises our risk assessment or exercise of caution. How marketing, commercialism and Americans' sense of entitlement underestimate and therefore exacerbate the dangers of wilderness...by willfully ignoring its risks, its needs...its right to exist. How our manipulation of wilderness poses far greater a threat than wilderness in its natural state.
As always, interwoven in each of these essays are insightful historical references, shocking statistics, and lively and interesting characters. Really enjoy his writing style.

[Brent Woo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been on a survival stories kick lately, don't know how I haven't picked up any Krakauer before. All stories are never actually just about "the survival" or anything trite like 'man vs nature'. (Nor are they intended to be poetic/lit like Jack London.) The one set on Everest is about fair working practices for the sherpas. The one about caving is, ironically, debating about funding space travel. The one set in Alaska is about an unexpected clash between honoring both indigenous rights and conservation. I find that a very compelling way to elevate stories beyond dry journalism, and also to keep interest without having to ramp up the melodrama.

Favorites were "Gates of the Arctic", "Fred Beckey Is Still on the Loose", "Descent to Mars", "Death and Anger on Everest", "Living Under the Volcano". Most of them! Although, with "Fred Beckey", at times I worried he would fall into the trap of The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit — that guy held the weird old hermit on such a pedestal, it was hard to take him seriously ("But why did he reject society and go live in the woods? What does he know that we don't?" — Nothing, he's just a misanthrope.) Sure it's interesting to hear about these dirty bearded old men who live in vans (or the woods) and have rejected society and all that, but we don't need to worship them, or hang on to their every word like they're some oracle on the mountain. Fortunately Krakauer never really falls into that hobo-worship problem.

No idea what "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" was doing in this collection. It was about an architecture theorist? "Embrace the Misery" also started off strong, sort of a zen recollection, how to deal with the world going to pot, but it fizzled out and didn't go anywhere. Don't care about surfing, so "Mark Foo" was whatever.

Overall great stuff, already looking forward to his book-length works.

[James Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

An inevitability of aging is that your favorite bands eventually release albums that disappoint you. When this happens, I like to play a thought experiment: "Would anyone notice this album if it was released by a no-name band?" Would the quality of the album get them noticed by anyone if they weren't already called Radiohead or Oasis?

You could apply the same question to Jon Krakauer's collection of writings, mostly from early in his career in the 1980s and 90s. Would this particular collection of writings stand out if they weren't packaged with the name Jon Krakauer on the cover?

I think the answer in this case is no.

I love Jon Krakauer. He's a brilliant writer. But this collection didn't do a lot for me on its own. Most of these articles -- originally published in major magazines -- felt like little more than an introduction to an issue. You get a little taste, and then it's time to move on.

The two standout articles were "After the Fall" and "Loving Them to Death". After the Fall covers the fallout from the accidental death of a mountain climbing student, and the ripple-effect in the climbing industry from the resulting lawsuits. Loving Them to Death covered the industry of outdoor rehabilitation programs for troubled teens -- in particular, the sketchy standards of many of the companies in the space, which lead to the unnecessary deaths of several kids in the 80s and 90s.

Those two articles make the price of admission almost worth it. I just wish there had been something more to justify binding together this random assortment of writings in 2019 -- for example, if Krakauer had written a quick update on each story, or even a simple reflection on what he thinks of the stories so many decades later.

[Pia · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
la verdad no tenia ni idea de que esperar con este libro. pensé que hablaría más de trekking y alpinismo pero acabo siendo de deportes extremos en la naturaleza en general (aún así me gustó mucho leer sobre eso).

me encantó leer la segunda mitad en suiza en camino a los hikes con mi hermana o descansando en el bosque.
amé tardarme en leerlo, gozarlo despacio y saborearlo totalmente!!
me gusta que ya estoy leyendo más lento otra vez :)

a pesar de ser una colección de artículos periodísticos de krakauer, sabe perfectamente narrar una historia, sientes la adrenalina, el peligro y el dolor que sienten las personas documentadas. 100% quiero leer más libros de él y más libros naturaleza como éste.


(hubo un artículo/"capítulo" que sentí que sobró)
(no lo recomiendo si no eres freak de deporte/ naturaleza)