Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains |  | Author: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: The Lyons Press
List Price: $14.95
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Seller: noah74
Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 2509
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1599216108
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522
EAN: 9781599216102
ASIN: 1599216108
Publication Date: February 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
No matter what the actual temperature may be, several pages into Eiger Dreams you will begin to shiver. Halfway through you will acquire a new appreciation for your fingers, toes, and the fact that you still have a nose. And by the end of this collection, you'll define some commonly used phrases in an entirely different way. The understated "catch some air" and the whimsical "log some flight time" are climbers' euphemisms for falling, while "crater" refers to what happens when you log some flight time all the way to the ground. "Summiting," the term for reaching the top of a mountain, seems almost colorless in comparison. The various heroes, risk-takers, incompetents, and individualists Krakauer captures are more than colorful, whether they summit or not. The author is more interested in exploring the addiction of risk--the intensity of effort--than mere triumph. There's the mythical minimalist climber, John Gill, whose fame "rests entirely on assents less than thirty feet high," and the Burgess brothers--freewheeling, free-floating English twins who seem to make all the right decisions when it counts, and hence most often fail to reach the top. Of course, they are alive. Over these and other talented climbers hangs a malignant, endlessly creative nature--its foehn winds can make people crazy and its avalanches do far worse. Eiger Dreams is an adrenaline fest for the weary, an overdue examination of a stylish, brave subculture. As one of the heroes Krakauer outlines says of his occupation, "It's sort of like having fun, only different."
Product Description
In this collection, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devil's Thumb.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 64
 Amazing stories August 18, 2009
Kailash Thiyagarajan (NY)
I found the writing very appealing as I am an outdoor guy myself. Sarcastically funny in a good way.
thrilling collection of great adventure stories May 3, 2009
John D. Mattson (Nederland, CO)
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
 Good, But No Close to "Into Thin Air" May 1, 2009
Matthew Morine (Castle Rock, CO)
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.
Krakauer does it again January 27, 2009
C. Tucker (Chicago-Gainesville)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Tasty Leftovers August 24, 2008
Bruce King (Seattle, WA, USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 64
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