In 1996 Jon Krakauer joined a commercial expedition to the summit of Everest. As an accomplished climber & journalist his brief was to cover this new tourist phenomenon: guided expeditions to the top of the world's highest mountain for paying clients with little climbing experience. However tragedy struck when the expedition was caught in a freak storm whilst coming down from the summit. Eight people died & the events shook Krakauer to the core. Although he wrote about the disaster afterwards it continued to haunt him. This book was an attempt to rid himself of the ghosts of that climb.