Description
Book SynopsisEverest - the highest mountain in the world and the ultimate climbing challenge.
In 2006, 11 people died attempting to reach the summit, the most fatalities since 1996. But unlike 1996, 2006 saw no surprise blizzard, only the constant dangers posed by unstable ice, merciless cold, thin air - and human nature.
Nick Heil tells the shocking true stories of David Sharp, a young British solo climber, who was passed by 40 mountaineers as he lay dying on the slopes of the mountain, and Lincoln Hall who was left for dead yet miraculously survived, and asks: what does climbing the world''s highest peak really mean for those who take on the challenge? And how far will they go in their single-minded pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize?
Trade ReviewPaints an alarming picture of modern arrogance in the face of nature * Sunday Express *
Heil is good on the nature of obsession...even better on the hallucinatory effects of hypothermia...the truths he reveals are harsh * Geographical *
If you couldn't put down Into Thin Air, you must read Dark Summit to understand what it means to climb Everest today and why anyone might accept the risk. -- Peter Athans, seven-time Everest summiter and The North Face athlete
Authoritative ... Through rock-solid reporting and vital prose, Heil leads us up into this rarefied world, step by hypoxic step. -- Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder
I consider this book not a sequel to Krakauer's Into Thin Air, but an equal -- Bob Shacochis, author of The Immaculate Invasion
