这是美国畅销书《进入空气稀薄地带（Into Thin Air）》，写的雪山山难，1996年5月10日发生在珠峰的山难，一场暴风雪让9名登山者从此长眠在珠峰，其中包括几名拥有非常丰富经验的珠峰登山家。本书后来还被改变为同名电影。

    “......然而对珠穆朗玛峰，经过千辛万苦登顶的科莱考尔只用了短短的一句话———没有更高的去处了。在这里，作者的冷酷几乎颠覆了以往我们认为的或者说被我们赋予的登上世界最高峰的崇高，那些可以花金钱实现的梦想也在模糊登山者的伟大的光环，围绕着珠穆朗玛峰所进行的经营、炒作、操纵和竞争，和我们日常生活中是一样的，与海拔的高度无关。而科莱考尔在他的一段自白中吐露真言：“我没有认识到攀登对于我灵魂的操纵，抑或是她赋予我原本毫无目的的生活意义”。科莱考尔的书好就好在，他没有歌颂，也没有批判，而是直入骨髓的记录，而且像美国电影的节奏一样快。”

【书名】进入空气稀薄地带：珠穆朗玛峰攀登灾难亲历记  (英文名《Into Thin Air》)
【作者】乔恩·科莱考尔 / Jon Krakauer
【译者】韩敬
【出版社】现代出版社
【ISBN 】9787800285417
【出版时间】1999年
【页数】281  
【定价】20元
【简介】
    本书是美国著名记者和畅销书《走入荒芜》的作者乔恩·科莱考尔对珠穆朗玛峰历史上死亡人数最多的攀登季节所做的权威性记述。
    为完成《外界》杂志报道珠峰日益商业的任务，出色的登山者科莱考尔作为世界上最优秀的高山向导罗布·霍尔的顾客前往喜马拉雅山脉。纤瘦的35岁的新西兰人霍尔在1990年至1995年间4次登临珠峰顶。与霍尔队伍同时攀登的还有由40负的美国人斯科特·费希尔率领的登山队。斯科特有着传奇般的力量和精神，并于1994年在不借助氧气瓶的状态下登上了峰顶。但是霍尔和费希尔都没能发生在1996年5月的那场捉弄人的暴风雪……
【目录】
    第一章 珠穆朗玛峰1996年5月10日，海拔29，028英尺
    第二章 台拉登，印度1852年，海拔2，234英尺
    第三章 越过北印度1996年3月29日，海拔30，000英尺
    第四章 帕克于1996年3月31日，海拔9，186英尺
    第五章 洛布杰1996年4月8日，海拔16，200英尺
    第六章 珠穆朗玛峰大本营1996年4月12日，海拔17，600英尺
    第七章 1号营地1996年4月13日，海拔19，500英尺
    第八章 1号营地1996年4月28日
    ……

【E文版】



【E文版内容简介】

    A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster.

    By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself.

    This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I.

In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."

Amazon.com
Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.

媒体推荐Reviews

Review:
"... he has produced a narrative that is both meticulously researched and deftly constructed. Unlike the expedition, his story rushes irresistibly forward. But perhaps Mr. Krakauer's greatest achievement is his evocation of the deadly storm, his ability to re-create its effects with a lucid and terrifying intimacy. --Alastair Scott, The New York Times Book Review
Review:
"This is a great book, among the best ever on mountaineering. Gracefully and efficiently written, carefully researched, and actually lived by its narrator, it shares a similar theme with another sort of book, a novel called "The Great Gatsby." --The Washington Post
Review:
"Into Thin Air ranks among the great adventure books of all time." --The Wall Street Journal

Review:
"Krakauer is an extremely gifted storyteller as well as a relentlessly honest and even-handed journalist, the story is riveting and wonderfully complex in its own right, and Krakauer makes one excellent decision after another about how to tell it.... To call the book an adventure saga seems not to recognize that it is also a deeply thoughtful and finely wrought philosophical examination of the self." --Elle
Review:
"Hypnotic, rattling. . . . Time collapses as, minute by minute, Krakauer rivetingly and movingly chronicles what ensued, much of which is near agony to read. . . . A brilliantly told story that won't go begging when the year's literary honors are doled out." --Kirkus Reviews

Review:
"Though it comes from the genre named for what it isn't (nonfiction), this has the feel of literature: Krakauer is Ishmael, the narrator who lives to tell the story but is forever trapped within it.... Krakauer's reporting is steady but ferocious. The clink of ice in a glass, a poem of winter snow, will never sound the same." --Mirabella
Review:
"Into Thin Air is a remarkable work of reportage and self-examination. . . . And no book on the 1996 disaster is likely to consider so honestly the mistakes that killed his colleagues." --Newsday
Review:
"A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." --People
Review:
"In this movingly written book, Krakauer describes an experience of such bone-chilling horror as to persuade even the most fanatical alpinists to seek sanctuary at sea level." --Sports Illustrated