Just Finished It
Maybe you read it in one sitting, maybe you had to put it down and take a walk. Either way, you probably want another book that grips like that.
Here are six true books to read next. Some come from the same mountain, and some from far away. I’ll tell you what each shares with Jon Krakauer’s book, and where it’s different, so you can pick the one that fits your mood. They’re all nonfiction, and all of them deal with real danger and loss. I kept to true stories on purpose, because knowing it really happened is what makes Krakauer’s book hit so hard.
What To Look For
First, what are we hunting for? For me, Into Thin Air has three ingredients. The first is a firsthand voice, someone who was there, writing as honestly as memory allows. The second is hard decisions under pressure, where you watch good people choose and can’t change the outcome.
The third is an honest reckoning, afterward, with what went wrong. A good match has at least two of these, and I’ll tell you which each pick brings. A few of my picks have all three, and one gives you the missing viewpoint. Each of these is a real book, but some are hard going, so check the content before you start. Expect death, injury and grief in every one of them, and strong language in a few.
Number One: The Climb
Number one is The Climb, by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt, from nineteen ninety-seven. This is the guide’s own account of the same May storm, and it was written partly in response to Krakauer. Boukreev, the Russian guide who went out into the blizzard to bring climbers back, tells his side.
It is also disputed ground. In his postscript, Krakauer says it contains errors, and he and Boukreev’s co-writer disagreed publicly. I’d read it second, with Into Thin Air fresh in your mind, and read it as a rebuttal. Boukreev died on Annapurna six weeks after it was published.
What it shares with Into Thin Air is the same few hours, seen through a different pair of eyes. What’s different is that it is openly defending someone. Read it with a skeptical mind, and decide for yourself where you land.
Number Two: Left For Dead
Number two is Left for Dead, by Beck Weathers with Stephen G. Michaud, from two thousand. Weathers was a Dallas pathologist on Rob Hall’s team, and the man everyone thought was dead, until he walked into camp. This is his memoir of the climb, and of the long road home.
What makes it different is that it’s about a whole life, not only the mountain. He is candid about how his obsession with climbing strained his marriage. Some readers feel it spends more time before and after the climb than on it. If you wanted the human aftermath, this is it.
It shares Krakauer’s survivor’s perspective, but it is warmer and more personal, and it isn’t trying to solve the mystery of what went wrong.
Number Three: Touching The Void
Number three is Touching the Void, by Joe Simpson, from nineteen eighty-eight. In the Peruvian Andes, Simpson and his partner Simon Yates were coming down from the peak of Siula Grande when Simpson broke his leg. What happens next, and the choices both men face, is one of the great survival stories.
It’s smaller than Everest, just two men, but the tension is just as tight. It has sold more than a million copies and been translated into over twenty languages. If you loved the moral questions in Krakauer’s book, start here.
It shares the tension and the impossible choices. What’s different is the scale: no guides, no crowds, no business, just two friends and a rope.
Number Four: Buried In The Sky
Number four is Buried in the Sky, by Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan, from twenty twelve. It tells the story of K2’s deadliest day, in August of two thousand eight, when eleven climbers died, mostly from the point of view of the Sherpas and high-altitude porters on the mountain.
If you finished Into Thin Air wanting more of the Sherpas’ own story, this book is the answer. It follows Chhiring Dorje Sherpa and Pasang Lama, who survived, and shows what happened when the system failed. It is sad, thoughtful and very well reported.
It shares the real-world stakes and the reporting discipline of Into Thin Air, and it widens the lens to the people who make these climbs possible.
Number Five: Annapurna
Number five is Annapurna, by Maurice Herzog, first published in French in nineteen fifty-one. In nineteen fifty, a French expedition led by Herzog made the first ascent of an eight-thousand-meter peak. Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the top.
It is the grandfather of the genre, and the English translation appeared in nineteen fifty-two. It’s more old-fashioned and heroic than Krakauer, and it reads like a time capsule. I’d pick it if you love mountaineering history, and want to see what these books sounded like before the doubts and the debates.
It shares the drama of a high-altitude ordeal, but it has little of Krakauer’s skepticism, so it works best as history.
Number Six: Into The Wild
Number six is Into the Wild, also by Jon Krakauer, from nineteen ninety-six. It tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a young man who walked into the Alaskan wilderness and did not walk out. Krakauer investigates his life, his choices, and what drove him.
If you liked Krakauer’s voice, his curiosity and his habit of putting himself in the story, this is the other half of his reputation. Different mountain, same questions: why do people go to such places, and what does it cost the people who love them?
It shares the author’s voice and his habit of asking hard questions. What’s different is that it’s a quieter, more personal story, and it isn’t about a mountain.
If You’d Rather Watch
If you’d rather watch than read, there are screen versions of the same story. The two thousand fifteen film Everest, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, stars Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal. Krakauer has criticized it, and the director has said it is not based on his book.
There was also a nineteen ninety-seven television movie, Into Thin Air: Death on Everest. Neither replaces the book, and both are fairly intense, so check the content notes first.
How To Choose
So, how do you choose? If you want the other side of the same day, read The Climb. If you want the survivor’s story, read Left for Dead. If you want a short, gripping survival read, pick Touching the Void.
If you want the Sherpas’ view, Buried in the Sky. For mountaineering history, Annapurna. And for more Krakauer, Into the Wild. If I had to pick just one, I’d say Touching the Void, because it is the easiest place to start.
And if you want a full reading plan, try this order. Start with Touching the Void for the survival story, move to Left for Dead for a survivor’s voice, then read The Climb for the other side of May tenth. Finish with Buried in the Sky, to widen your view of who makes these climbs possible.
Before You Go
Every book I mentioned is linked in the description, along with audiobooks. What’s your favorite mountain or survival book? Tell me in the comments, and I’ll add it to my list. If you want more recommendations like this one, subscribe, and thanks for watching.
