Redflare,

Loved the book. I picked it up after watching the ABC Movie and assorted nmews reports. Beck Weathers (the Doctor with frostbite) lives in the DFW area so our local papers carried extra material.

I found his story to be inspiring - he seemed to have willed himself to survive.

Krakauer doesn't pull a lot of punches in the book - particularly when questioning the judgement of taking inexperienced people up to the mountain because its the 'in thing" (i.e., the NY socialite who was 'carried' and dragged up the mountain by the sherpas when they could have been working on more useful tasks).

After reading it, I gave up my dream of climbing Everest. I'm not going to be in the condition needed to complete the trip, and I'm darned if I would put others' lives at risk just so that I could brag about it.