CLASSIC KRAKAUER - JOHN KRAKAUER

The last of the Togo books, and a physical copy of a book, no less. I left it at the hotel on our way to the airport. I was mailed this by my dad for some reason. My mom is a big Mt. Everest person, so INTO THIN AIR has always been around the house and, for some reason, my dad really likes Krakauer. He’s not outdoorsy, no one in my family really is, but he still enjoys Krakauer’s writing. I’m also not an outdoorsy person, a quality which made me stand out in Seattle, but I guess I’d like to be. But not on the level of Krakauer, who’s at the extreme Alpine end where the activities do not seem fun at all, in fact, the misery seems to be the point. The last essay in the book is actually on that topic, why someone would engage in the really out there, physically punishing hiking-for-days-in-the-rain-on-deadly-mountains sort of stuff he so often writes about and participates in. He gives the standard answer that it’s about achieving something you set out to do, which makes a little sense to me but honestly it’s weird to me that you both want to experience nature but choose to express this by visiting nature’s least inviting locals. This book is all essays and magazine pieces that Krakauer wrote before he was able to move on to publishing books. Even back at this point you can tell he’s one of the best writers in the genre. His stories zip along and entertain even when they’re not on the most interesting topic. As for this book, it is by it’s nature a grab-bag. Any one of the pieces could have been fleshed out more, but they had to yield to the limits of a magazine’s length requirements. The most interesting ones to me concerned a big wave surfer who died in the waters near Santa Cruz. I don’t know how to surf, nor have I ever tried, but I have a slight fascination with it. There was a piece about famous mountaineer who’s also an asshole and aging (he’s since died) who Krakauer hikes with and does a good job showing the loneliness of his life. Finally, my favorite piece was about the troubled teens in the wilderness industry that thrives in Utah. I have a more major fascination with the troubled teen industry and the various camps and rehabs and in-patient treatment centers that have popped up to serve them. They’re largely a grift, preying on overwhelmed parents, but they also attract the scariest sorts of authoritarian adults who are given unchecked power over a young and vulnerable population. They especially seem to thrive in Utah and Florida. We’re due for a deep dive into these places in general but Krakauer does a good job looking into the more “wilderness-y” ones in this essay. Krakauer has a Morman fascination and does a good job showing the link between the LDS and these sorts of places and their ideologies. He tracks a few individual people who run different programs that have resulted in deaths but I would love a book length expo of these sorts of places. 9 large mountains.