Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer was born on April 12, 1954 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He grew up in Oregon, where he began mountain climbing at the age of eight. He graduated from Hampshire College in 1976, and worked as a carpenter and a commercial fisherman in Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. In 1996 he managed to reach the top of Mt. Everest, though five of his teammates died on the way down from the mountain. Krakauer wrote about the experience in his book, "Into Thin Air."