Jon Krakauer, American writer and journalist, was born in Corvallis, Oregon in 1954. He is also a mountaineer, his father having introduced him to the profession when he was eight years old . old, thus triggering his lifelong passion. In 1977, a year after graduating from Hampshire College, Krakauer blazed a new route to Devil's Thumb, a dangerous mountain in southeast Alaska. This venture constitutes his first major foray into mountaineering. In 1996, Krakauer recounted an adventure on the Stikine Ice Cap, in which he took a route never attempted before, in one of his novels, Into the Wild. Since his excursion to Devil's Thumb, Krakauer has not climbed, but has instead continued writing. Despite this, when Outside Magazine asked him to write an article on commercialism on Mount Everest, he accepted without hesitation. In 1996, Krakauer enlisted in the May expedition, unaware that the season would be so turbulent that it would leave twelve people dead - four of them his own teammates - in a deadly storm that would engulf and ravage Everest. Fortunately, he managed to climb and descend the mountain. H...