I just finished reading Nick Heil’s excellent Dark Summit in 3 days. It’s under 300 words but it seemed shorter because I turned the pages so fast. I wanted to stop doing everything and finish it. It’s fascinating look at how crazy Everest has become, but I also found it strangely hopeful. It’s also a great look at high altitude mountaineering for the uninitiated. Life above 27,000 feet is terribly unpredictable. The only thing that seems for certain is that Everest survival situations will have moral complexity we don’t often find at sea level. And–if people didn’t climb and die–or nearly die–we wouldn’t have so many terrific Everest nonfiction books!
