'Into thin air'

Surprised to hear the weatherman reported about a record hot Feb day today with temperature hitting already 28 degrees celcius. However, on the contrary, while continuing reading an adventure book titled 'Into thin air', I felt a bone-chilling cold instead of the heat.

Now I am happy I didn't hesistate to pay 305 rs for it at a bookstore in Thamel, Nepal, even though it turned out to be just a pirated copy. A personal account of the Mt. Everest disaster by Jon Kratkauer,a freelance writer who was sent by a outside magazine to Nepal to participate and write about a guilded ascent of Mt. Evereset. On May 10, 1996, he and his teammates, did succeed in climbing to the summit, but he and other climbers, unfortunately were wrapped up in a totally unwarned snowstorm. The cost was terribel. Four in his team were killed, and nine in four climbers group lost their lives, and three other more lives were lost before the month was out.

For most readers like me, who can only look up and dream about Mt. Everest, it's a great chance to follow step by step with the author from Kathmandu to the mountain and have a very close-up and detailed idea of all perils about this deadly sport. Moreever, during the most deadly disaster of Mt Everest in history, I couldn't help being moved by the book's extremely honest record of all personalities, including himself, when faced with life-and-death choices and making judgement about saving energy for oneself or trying to save other lives, and heartening heroism.