Climbing Everest is the peak of hubris

Climbers make their way to camp 2 on Mount Everest: 'As conditions are made safe for these blithe cretins they become more dangerous for Sherpas'. Photograph: Christian Kober/JAI/Corbis Mountain Madness was the name of an expedition whose leader perished in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, chronicled by Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air – and it was well-named.