Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer (born April 12, 1954, Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.) is an American writer and mountaineer widely known for his bestselling non-fiction books Into the Wild (1996) and Into Thin Air (1997), both of which have been adapted into movies. He was a member of a 1996 expedition that attempted to reach the summit of Mount Everest during the then-deadliest climbing season in the mountain’s history; Into Thin Air is an account of those tragic events. Krakauer has also written numerous essays and articles for magazines including Outside, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and The New Yorker.

Early life and education

Krakauer is one of five children born to Carol Krakauer (née Jones), a multimedia artist and art teacher, and Lewis Krakauer, a physician, both of whom are deceased. When Jon was two, his father moved the family from Brookline, Massachusetts, to Corvallis, Oregon, to practice medicine at the Corvallis Clinic. The young Krakauer gained his love of the outdoors from his parents, who were both mountain climbers. He began climbing with his father at the age of eight and summited Mount Rainier (14,410 feet [4,392 meters]) at age ten. Willi Unsoeld, a member of the first American expedition to summit Mount Everest, was the older Krakauer’s friend and an early inspiration for Jon. Lewis Krakauer, an occasional editor of the Year Book of Sports Medicine, also helped influence his son’s future writing career.

Krakauer attended Corvallis High School, where he was a member of the tennis team. After graduating in 1972, he enrolled at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and received a degree in environmental studies in 1976. In the summer of 1974, while still in college, Krakauer traveled to Alaska to climb the Arrigetch Peaks in the Brooks Range. He ascended three previously unexplored peaks as part of a group, prompting the American Alpine Club to request that he write about the climbs for its journal. His article, titled New Arrigetch Climbs, was published in 1975.

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Krakauer married former climber Linda Mariam Moore in 1980; they have lived in Boulder, Colorado, since 1998.

Early career: Mountaineering and writing

Krakauer worked as a commercial salmon fisherman and carpenter in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Colorado for several years following his college graduation; his choice of locations was based on their proximity to mountains and opportunities for climbing. In 1978 Krakauer wrote an article for the British climbing magazine Mountain about his 1977 attempt to ascend the never-before-climbed north face of the Devil’s Thumb, a 9,077-foot (2,767-meter) Alaskan mountain, an expedition that saw him spend close to three weeks alone in the wilderness. While his efforts were thwarted on the north face, he was able to set a new route on the southeast face.

The money Krakauer earned from writing the article inspired him to take on more freelance writing projects, and by the early 1980s he was able to make a living from writing. He became a regular correspondent and contributing editor for Outside, and wrote essays for magazines including Smithsonian and New Age Journal; one of his articles for Smithsonian won him a Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism in 1997. In 1990, Krakauer published his debut book, Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains, a collection of several essays he had written for magazines during the 1980s. In 1992, he climbed Cerro Torre, a 10,262-foot (3,128-meter) peak in the Patagonian Andes.

Into the Wild

Krakauer’s next major work was an article about the life and death of Christopher McCandless commissioned by Outside magazine. Titled Death of an Innocent and published in 1993, the article recounts the story of the twenty-four-year-old college graduate who gave away his possessions and savings and traveled through the western United States before entering the Alaskan wilderness with minimal supplies in April 1992. Hunters found his body in September that year, and his death was attributed to starvation.

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Struck by the similarities between McCandless’ life and his own journey into Alaska as a young man, Krakauer expanded on his article, turning it into a book called Into the Wild (1996). Into the Wild won the American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults award in 1997, and it spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list. The book was adapted into a 2007 Hollywood film of the same name, directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch as McCandless; the film was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Into Thin Air

His next book Into Thin Air (1997) also originated as an article commissioned by Outside: the magazine sponsored his summit attempt on Mount Everest in exchange for an article on the commercialization of Himalayan climbing expeditions. An unexpected storm during the summit attempt in May 1996, alongside contributing factors such as overcrowding, inexperience, commercial pressures, and lax safety protocols, led to several deaths and left many other climbers with severe injuries from frostbite and exposure. Outside published Krakauer’s 17,000-word account of the disaster in September the same year.

Shortly after publication of the article, Krakauer noticed some inaccuracies, which he attributed to the effects of the high altitude on his memory, as well as the emotional toll of the experience. He also realized that the limited length of the article did not adequately convey the impact of the tragedy on the victims’ families and friends. This inspired him to write the book Into Thin Air, a more complete account of the events meant to do justice to the tragedy. The book, which reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list, was named one of Time magazine’s non-fiction books of the year, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book was not without controversy; Krakauer criticized several decisions made during both the summit attempt and rescue operations. Anatoli Boukreev, a veteran climber and guide for one of the expeditions, published his own version of events in the book The Climb (1997), rejecting Krakauer’s criticism of his actions. After an escalating war of words, the two tried to reconcile before Boukreev returned to the Himalayas for a winter ascent of Annapurna in December 1997, where he died in an avalanche.

Into Thin Air inspired the 1997 movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, multiple documentaries, and a 2015 film titled Everest, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal but was based only in part on Krakauer’s book. In a 2015 interview with CNN, Krakauer regretted going on the Everest expedition, saying it led to years of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Subsequent writing career

Over the next two decades, Krakauer’s book writing took a different direction. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003) examined a 1984 double murder committed by polygamy-practicing Mormon fundamentalists against the background of Mormonism’s violent past. The book was criticized by several members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Under the Banner of Heaven was adapted into a Hulu miniseries starring Andrew Garfield in 2022.

In Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009), Krakauer recounted the life and death of Pat Tillman, a professional football player for the Arizona Cardinals who left the NFL to enlist in the U.S. Army, and was killed in Afghanistan. The Army initially concealed that he was killed by friendly fire.

Krakauer’s Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (2011) challenged the public image of humanitarian Greg Mortenson by detailing allegations of mismanagement and fraud at his charity, the Central Asia Institute; the book’s title is based on Mortenson’s bestselling book called Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) examined the handling of sexual assault cases linked to the University of Montana, exposing failures within both higher education institutions and the criminal justice system. In 2018 Krakauer returned to his outdoor roots with Classic Krakauer: After the Fall, Mark Foo’s Last Ride and Other Essays from the Vault, a collection of some of his previously published articles.