The ten best survival stories

For the Observer, writer and mountaineer Ed Douglas named ten of the most courageous tales of survival and the books and films they have inspired.

One entry on his list:

Everest, 1996

In 1996, Jon Krakauer went to Everest for Outside magazine to report on how commercial expeditions were changing the mountain. He got a far bigger story: on the day he reached the summit, a number of mountain guides (including New Zealander Rob Hall) and their wealthy clients were caught in a storm and eight died. Krakauer’s account is a modern example of how the power of nature can still expose hubris and ignorance. Although Russian guide Anatoli Boukreev countered with his own bestselling account, Krakauer’s Into Thin Air changed adventure publishing as editors scrambled to repeat its success.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue