Jon Krakauer wrote his new book because he had to clear the air. For the good of his soul he needed to tell people exactly what happened during those terrifying days on Mount Everest one year ago.
Ever since publication of "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster," he has been on the stump. He's on a marathon book tour through the country, a swing that will bring him to Salt Lake City on Friday, June 6. And everywhere he goes he is forced to relive the tragedy - the expedition that cost the lives of five people who climbed the world's highest mountain with him.They were among nine who died in that single storm. Three more people were killed on Everest during the month of May 1996.
"It's still pretty raw, and to be talking about it over and over again, I sort of feel myself getting hard," he said in an interview. "It's weird. It's a hard place to be."
Krakauer was in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, airport, having just spoken in Iowa City, when he returned a Deseret News call. He said the publishing success of "Into Thin Air" surprises him.
"I don't really understand it. I don't understand why there's so much interest," he said. As of this week it is No. 2 on the New York Times' list of best-selling nonfiction books; on May 28 it ranked third on the Wall Street Journal's list.
Probably the interest stems from the fact that it is a fine work filled with adventure, terror, hardship, sadness, human frailty. Above all, it is brutally honest.
"I'm glad I wrote the book. It's something I needed to do. It's certainly the most upsetting thing I've been involved with. How would you feel if you'd gone on this climb, and five of your friends died?" he said.
On assignment for Outside magazine, Krakauer was on an expedition led by Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants, a New Zealand firm that promised to lead climbers to the top for $65,000 each. His description of the harrowing days when a blizzard caught them at the summit is a strong indictment of the guide business.
It is also a searing examination of his own culpability. As he writes toward the end of the book:
"Of the six climbers on Hall's expedition who reached the summit, only Mike Groom and I made it back down: Four teammates with whom I'd laughed and vomited and held long, intimate conversations lost their lives. My actions - or failure to act - played a direct role in the death of Andy Harris. And while Yasuko Namba lay dying on the South Col, I was a mere 350 yards away, huddled inside a tent, oblivious to her struggle, concerned only with my own safety. The stain this has left on my psyche is not the sort of thing that washes off after a few months of grief and guilt-ridden self-reproach."
Krakauer told the Deseret News that as a writer, it helped him to put down exactly what happened. "I hope it'll . . . provide some peace of mind down the road," he said.
"I just felt a real need and a duty to report what really happened up there."
Some of the relatives and loved ones of those who perished are more than a little upset with his book, he said. "And I understand why. I felt they're not the only people who lost people. It's a complicated story. In writing this book I really wanted to show how complex this tragedy was."
It wasn't simply a matter of greedy guides luring the unsuspecting up a slippery slope of disaster. It was much more complex than that, as he will explain when he speaks on June 6.
Tony Weller of Zion Book, sponsors of the Salt Lake visit, said the free public talk begins at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Orson Spencer Hall on the University of Utah campus. The lecture had been slated for the Marriott Library, but so many people have been packing other venues that Weller decided to opt for a bigger auditorium.
"I would urge people to show up on time or early," Weller said. Last year the bookstore hosted Krakauer's talk about his previous best-selling book, "Into the Wild," thinking the 60-capacity store would hold the crowd. Instead, about 200 showed up.
"He hadn't nearly the attention at that time as now," he said. "Of course it's (the new book) a compelling story to begin with. The recent deaths this spring (on Everest) rekindled interest."
Krakauer is looking forward to his return here.
"I love Utah. Some of my closest friends live in Salt Lake," he said.
He added that he is probably naively optimistic about his chances to get away for a small expedition while he is here, but he has been "hauling around my climbing stuff. . . . I can't wait until I get back out West."