Mat Gilson

Here is a comprehensive list of all of the books that I have read about men in cold climates who die due to extreme ego and also frostbite. This is my comfort book genre. I have dipped my toe into the fiction end of this spectrum, however I am much more inclined to the nonfiction horrors of real men, and their real life audacity. The setting of a beautiful yet desolate, cold climate speaks to our innate desire to be somewhere, anywhere else, even if it kills us. Here is my list in the order that I read them:

1. Into Thin Air (1997)

Jon Krakauer is able to write fiction in a narrative manner that some of the other authors on this list truly struggle with. The 1996 Everest disaster is enduringly intriguing partly due to Krakaur’s in-depth and personal characterization of the real people whose ambitions lead them to the mountain on that day. That fateful season killed 12 climbers, and ushered in a new era of Everest as a world stage of greed and folly. It’s a great book whether you like this type of shit or not!

2. The Climb (1997)

Anatoli Boukreev was criticized by Jon Krakauer in “Into Thin Air.” As a guide, Boukreev did not use bottled oxygen (controversial), and did not coddle clients in the manner that some on the mountain saw fit. He did, however, perform superhuman feats of endurance and strength, after summiting Everest, throughout the night of May 10, 1996. That same night while Krakaur slept in his tent, sucking down oxygen and unable to assist anyone, Anatoli ventured into a storm in the death zone and dragged people back from the brink of death- twice. These first two books are like the original long form twitter beef. 

3. No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 (2010)

If I can be mean, I would say that this is the off brand, K2 version of “Into Thin Air.” The author, Graham Bowley, is incredibly well researched, but the “haunted-ness” is not present. Unfortunately, I think the trauma of being on the mountain made Krakauer write a better book? Is that fucked up? Still a great read if you like this sort of thing, remember that K2 is for the real climbers and the bad bitches only. 

4. Everest 1922 (2022)

It’s history! Now we are getting into real nonfiction book territory. This is a book your dad would read. Mick Conefrey does a great job telling the story of the history of Mt. Everest from the British perspective. Confusingly, I mostly came away with a desire to know a lot more about Tibet…

5. Tibet: A History (2011, Sam van Schaik)

Just kidding, just kidding! I did buy this book but I didn’t read past the first chapter. I’m not that dad-pilled. I read the wikipedia entry for the country instead, and also watched the movie “Seven Years in Tibet.” I’m sure they got everything right!

6. The Third Pole (2021)

Mark Synnott has done a great job of creating a convoluted scenario where he and his team are distinctly NOT trying to get to the top of Mt. Everest, instead, he and his team decided to fail at an entirely separate, equally deadly and stupid thing! No, they did not find Mallory’s magical camera that would prove who really summited Everest first. Sorry to spoil it, but now you don’t have to read it like I did.

7. Savage Arena (1982)

Now we are in the weeds of the thing. Joe Tasker was a mountaineering legend who, like many mountaineers, is made legendary by his incredible feats and inevitable disappearance on Everest. This book is his own, very gripping, exceptionally well written account of several of his earlier climbs in the Alps and the Himalaya. I swear it’s more interesting than I’m making it sound. I promise it’s really good. Give Joe a chance, he’s dead for God’s Sake!

8. Madhouse at the End of the Earth (2021, Julian Sancton)

Uh oh, we are going off the rails here and venturing into the Antarctic. If you liked the other stuff, you’re gonna like this, I swear. Men doing stuff in the cold is going to be equally entertaining regardless of what cold they are in. If you like hearing about them freezing to death on a mountain, you are gonna go crazy for them slowly going mad from lead poisoning in the Antarctic ice pack. Did you know that exploratory expeditions would get stuck in the Antarctic ice pack on purpose, for years, and just kinda hang out down there? They did! They ate raw rats to fight off scurvy! They killed like a thousand penguins! These guys sucked ass and I was satisfied to read about their misery. 

9. The Terror (2007, Dan Simmons)

Ok, so I didn’t so much read the book “The Terror,” as I watched the AMC miniseries. It was awesome. Both are based on the very real, notorious Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage, and I did read a lot of articles about that expedition online after the fact, and found out that regardless of what end of the Earth these guys were trying to get to, everyone eventually succumbs to lead poisoning and scurvy. Literally, everyone on this 129 man expedition died. Starve, colonialists. 

10. The Loneliest Continent (1964)

This is a chronological list of facts about the discovery and mapping of Antarctica. From the time the map showed “here there be monsters” to today, Walker Chapman bares all. This book is an armchair historian dad’s wet dream. Did I enjoy this? Yeah, of course. But do I recommend it to anyone to read? Not my worst enemy. If you enjoy a chronological and detailed list of facts then this is the book for you. 

☨ Honorable mention: The Snow Leopard (1978, Peter Matthiessen)

I loved this book about a couple of dudes who overland journey to the Crystal Monastery. They want to find a snow leopard, but instead, aw, they find themselves! I lent this book to my mom because she is a hippie, and I thought she would like all of the information about the different spiritual practices in Tibet. She did not like it, and she did not finish it. Do not listen to my mom, this is a great book. It’s an honorable mention because, while it is cold, no one dies. Give it a try!