Eiger Dreams; The Eiger Sanction
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains is a collection of essays by Jon Krakauer.
I didn't much care for the two dry articles that had been originally published in The Smithsonian, but the rest ranged from good to excellent. My favorites were "Eiger Dreams," in which Krakauer succumbs to mixed feelings part-way up a notoriously dangerous mountain; "Gill," a character study of the man who invented bouldering as a sport, though he does not regard as a sport but rather a form of moving meditation; "Club Denali," which, like "Eiger Dreams," is quite funny in a rather appalling way, about the extremely motley crew of semi-qualified eccentrics who try to climb Mt. McKinley one spring; and "Bad Summer at K2," which is more sparely written than the rest, a sober account of the summer when thirteen climbers died on K2. Unlike the Everest disaster chronicled in Into Thin Air, the K2 climbers were all highly qualified and cautious, but K2 is dangerous and their luck ran out.
Eiger Dreams didn't make me want to do any of the climbs it describes, except for bouldering and canyoneering, neither of which are dangerous, cold, or expensive, and both of which sound fun. But it does vividly convey what it feels like to do them.
Regrettably, though a few female climbers make brief appearances, the "men" in the subtitle is no mistake. Later I will discuss Annapurna: A Woman's Place, which is about women and mountains... and how men relate to the idea of women who climb mountains, which is somewhere between how Krakauer treats them, which is with respect when they appear but mostly not noticing that they exist, and how Clint Eastwood treats them, for which see below:
"Eiger Dreams" references a Clint Eastwood movie, The Eiger Sanction, which actually filmed on the Eiger. It was supposed to have good climbing sequences. It did have good climbing sequences. It was also stupid, annoying, racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and slow. And Clint Eastwood had stupid seventies hair. And the fights sucked.
Keeping in mind that a plot summary will probably make this sound more entertaining than it actually was... Clint Eastwood is a retired assassin who's become an art teacher. A female student comes on to him to get a better grade, because women are dumb sluts. He turns her down and pinches her ass. Then he's dragged back into one last mission, where he has to go to the Eiger and kill one of three mountaineers, only his albino boss Dragon who will melt or something if Clint turns on a reading lamp, doesn't know which one is the one who murdered one of Clint's old buddies. Except that the murderer has... a limp! Well, that should narrow it down.
Clint is waylaid by a sexy black stewardess named Jemima. She seduces him. Then she turns out to be one of Dragon's people. For the rest of the movie he keeps calling her a whore and worse. But she still loves him. Then he goes to train to climb the Eiger. Climbing sequences! Yay! A silent woman takes him running. Competent woman! Yay! Then she flashes her breasts, seduces him, and drugs him. Whoops, guess she's just another treacherous whore. There's also an evil, limp-wristed gay man, who Clint kills.
Now for the Eiger. One of the climbers has a wife who's a treacherous whore. Of course. Then they climb the Eiger, and spoilery stuff happens. The end.
In brief: Whore whore slut slut climb climb evil bitch die evil fag whore whore slut slut climb climb limp yay happy ending.
I didn't much care for the two dry articles that had been originally published in The Smithsonian, but the rest ranged from good to excellent. My favorites were "Eiger Dreams," in which Krakauer succumbs to mixed feelings part-way up a notoriously dangerous mountain; "Gill," a character study of the man who invented bouldering as a sport, though he does not regard as a sport but rather a form of moving meditation; "Club Denali," which, like "Eiger Dreams," is quite funny in a rather appalling way, about the extremely motley crew of semi-qualified eccentrics who try to climb Mt. McKinley one spring; and "Bad Summer at K2," which is more sparely written than the rest, a sober account of the summer when thirteen climbers died on K2. Unlike the Everest disaster chronicled in Into Thin Air, the K2 climbers were all highly qualified and cautious, but K2 is dangerous and their luck ran out.
Eiger Dreams didn't make me want to do any of the climbs it describes, except for bouldering and canyoneering, neither of which are dangerous, cold, or expensive, and both of which sound fun. But it does vividly convey what it feels like to do them.
Regrettably, though a few female climbers make brief appearances, the "men" in the subtitle is no mistake. Later I will discuss Annapurna: A Woman's Place, which is about women and mountains... and how men relate to the idea of women who climb mountains, which is somewhere between how Krakauer treats them, which is with respect when they appear but mostly not noticing that they exist, and how Clint Eastwood treats them, for which see below:
"Eiger Dreams" references a Clint Eastwood movie, The Eiger Sanction, which actually filmed on the Eiger. It was supposed to have good climbing sequences. It did have good climbing sequences. It was also stupid, annoying, racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, and slow. And Clint Eastwood had stupid seventies hair. And the fights sucked.
Keeping in mind that a plot summary will probably make this sound more entertaining than it actually was... Clint Eastwood is a retired assassin who's become an art teacher. A female student comes on to him to get a better grade, because women are dumb sluts. He turns her down and pinches her ass. Then he's dragged back into one last mission, where he has to go to the Eiger and kill one of three mountaineers, only his albino boss Dragon who will melt or something if Clint turns on a reading lamp, doesn't know which one is the one who murdered one of Clint's old buddies. Except that the murderer has... a limp! Well, that should narrow it down.
Clint is waylaid by a sexy black stewardess named Jemima. She seduces him. Then she turns out to be one of Dragon's people. For the rest of the movie he keeps calling her a whore and worse. But she still loves him. Then he goes to train to climb the Eiger. Climbing sequences! Yay! A silent woman takes him running. Competent woman! Yay! Then she flashes her breasts, seduces him, and drugs him. Whoops, guess she's just another treacherous whore. There's also an evil, limp-wristed gay man, who Clint kills.
Now for the Eiger. One of the climbers has a wife who's a treacherous whore. Of course. Then they climb the Eiger, and spoilery stuff happens. The end.
In brief: Whore whore slut slut climb climb evil bitch die evil fag whore whore slut slut climb climb limp yay happy ending.