Jon Krakauer — American Writer born on April 12, 1954,

Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, primarily known for his writings about the outdoors, especially mountain-climbing. He is the author of best-selling non-fiction books—Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman—as well as numerous magazine articles. He was a member of an ill-fated expedition to summit Mount Everest in 1996, which became known as the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, one of the deadliest disasters in the history of climbing Everest... (wikipedia)

I'm intrigued by fanatics - people who are seduced by the promise, or the illusion, of the absolute.
Rob Hall was, without doubt, the most competent guide in mountaineering.
I love being outdoors, being in the mountains and the desert, and my wife enjoys that too. That's one of the things that sustain our relationship.
I think part of the appeal of Antarctica is experiencing some sort of power, the forces of the natural world.
Antarctica has this mythic weight. It resides in the collective unconscious of so many people, and it makes this huge impact, just like outer space. It's like going to the moon.