Aria sottile

Everest, or Goddess of the Sky, has always been an object of fascination, obsession and desire for both mountaineers and dreamers. Only the strongest among them have managed to reach the top, thanks to their dedication, hard training and experience acquired over many years of mountaineering. But now, if you have the necessary money, it is within everyone's reach. When in May 1996 Krakauer was sent by the prestigious Outside magazine to climb Everest to write an article on the proliferation of commercial expeditions led by professional guides, it seemed the logical culmination of a career that had managed to combine his two passions : mountaineering and writing. On May 10, however, a storm caught the four expeditions on the summit by surprise. By the end of the day nine climbers were dead, including two of the best guides. Krakauer is among the lucky ones who managed to go back down "the Mountain". Thin Air is much more than the chronicle of that tragedy; in addition to offering a privileged point of view - that of the first person - on a story that almost still causes discussion, it offers above all a provocative examination of the motivations behind high altitude ascents and a dramatic testimony of why that tragedy occurred could have been avoided. Krakauer describes in an unforgettable way the struggle of existing and even more so of moving at 8000 meters. He is a keen examiner of the masochistic asceticism that drives mountaineers; he knows that to want to climb Everest you need a good dose of madness. His story contains what must be the essence of hell: the infinite capacity of things to become worse than you fear.