On May 10th through May 11th, 1996, a blizzard hit Mount Everest while several people were attempting to reach the summit. Over that climbing season, twelve people had died trying to reach the summit, and eight of those died in this particular blizzard. The expedition was led by Rob Hall and two other guides, Mike Groom and Andy Harris. There were eight clients on this trip, including the author of this book, Beck Weathers. The other clients were Jon Krakauer, John Taske, Yasuko Namba, Stuart Hutchinson, Doug Hansen, Frank Fischbeck, and Lou Kasischke. There were also eight sherpas. There was another climbing expedition at this time as well, but those aforementioned people were the ones in the group with the author of this book. There were several delays in the climb, which directly impacted the location of the climbers when the blizzard hit them. All of the people on the mountain were affected by this, and the author's group suffered some losses due to exposure and/or falling. I am very interested in things like this, but after reading this book, and others like it, I have no desire whatsoever to be a mountain climber.

I checked this book out from my library on a whim, because they didn't have either of the two books I went there to get. I love a disaster book, and I am also a big fan of memoirs, so this was right up my alley. I finished this a couple of days ago, and am a bit late to getting around to writing this review, but nevertheless. This would be a good book for those of you who like disasters, or are interested in mountain climbing. The book was obviously a personal experience, but it was well written and kept my attention. Despite the fact that it was about a disaster, it was an enjoyable book.