It was one of the most arresting viral photos of the year: a horde of climbers clogged atop Mount Everest. But it only begins to capture the deadly realities of what transpired that day at 29,000 feet.

The origins of an explorer.

For mountaineers, it’s not enough just to get to the top—it’s how you get there that matters.

The road to Lhakpa Sherpa’s seventh potential summit​ has been nothing if not complicated.

Controversy following a climbing disaster that killed eight.

Who gets out alive when disaster strikes? The people who can afford it.

Kate Matrosova was a classic overachiever and, at 32, had everything to live for. Still she set out alone into the mountains of New Hampshire—and a deadly storm.

The reverberations of an avalanche.

Erik Weihenmayer has climbed Mount Everest, raced across the Moroccan desert, and is about to kayak the Grand Canyon’s deadliest rapids—all without being able to see.

The unequal risk of climbing Mount Everest.

On the dangerous glut of visitors looking to conquer Mt. Everest, where there is sometimes a two-hour wait to climb the Hillary Step.

The harrowing first ascent of the mountain’s West Ridge.

A profile of Reinhold Messner, the greatest mountain climber of all time.

A group of childhood friends, two of whom had already climbed Everest, finds tragedy on Mont Blanc.

Fifty-four days after his group’s Everest climb turned tragic, Krakauer first told the story of what had gone wrong.