Mountaineering
One year after graduating from college (1977), he spent three weeks by himself in the wilderness of the Stikine Icecap region of Alaska and climbed a new route on the Devils Thumb, an experience he described in Eiger Dreams and in Into the Wild. In 1992, he made his way to Cerro Torre in the Andes of Argentine Patagonia -- a sheer, jagged granite peak more typical of those found in the Himalayas or Pacific Rim and considered to be one of the most difficult technical climbs in the world.
Krakauer's most recognized climb was a guided ascent of Mount Everest that became known as the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Soon after summitting the peak, Krakauer's team met with disaster as four of his teammates (including group leader Rob Hall) perished while making their descent in the middle of a storm.
A candid recollection of the event was published in Outside and eventually in the book Into Thin Air. By the end of the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history. Krakauer publicly criticized the commercialization of Mount Everest following this tragedy.
Read more about this topic: Jon Krakauer