Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

by Jon Krakauer | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 0385494785 Global Overview for this book
Registered by jlautner of Henderson, Nevada USA on 11/21/2017
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Journal Entry 1 by jlautner from Henderson, Nevada USA on Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Arrived from a paperbackswap member today.

Journal Entry 2 by jlautner at San Luis Obispo, California USA on Monday, November 27, 2017
I don't remember where I saw the recommendation for this book but I'm glad I did.

I know nearly nothing about mountain climbing and I certainly have never aspired to it. If I had, I might have second thoughts after reading this book. It really does take a certain type of person: not just strong and capable but also willing to face death. Most sports do not require that you give your life, and of course climbers don't plan to do so, but they have to consider the risks.

Krakauer was offered the chance to climb Everest in a guided team so that he could write about the effects its growing popularity is having on the people living there - the Sherpas - as well as on the climbers themselves and the region. Krakauer, therefore, needed to be a client of a professional guide, rather than part of an independent team. He chose Rob Hall, owner of Adventure Consultants, a New Zealand-based guide company, based on his expertise and guiding record.

Krakauer is an avid climber whose wife would rather he weren't. She wants him around for her and for their children. Climbing is an obsession, though, and he seems to share it with others, particularly top climbers. He had wanted to climb Everest since he was a boy and there was little chance he could afford the high fees and expenses by himself.

Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. It is subject to wild variations in weather from the bottom to the top, as it is about five miles from sea level. Even more, the increased altitude means dangerously thin air the closer one gets to the top.

Thus most climbers and guides use oxygen in the last stages, to avoid the dangerous effects of low oxygen levels in the body. What quickly became clear to me as I read this account of a climb up Everest with a wide range of fellow clients and guides and with encounters with several different and widely varying other teams, is that climbing these super tall mountains is painful. The cold, the thin air, the tricky rocks, all take a huge toll on a body.

The details of a climb up this mountain are worth the book by themselves. I felt I got a good sense of what it was like in a way that I hadn't appreciated before. But the real story is of the expedition itself, in April and May of 1996, and of all of the factors that led to a total of twelve deaths on the mountain.

Even though I knew from the start that people died, I still worked my way through the narrative with held breath at times, as the story is well paced. Krakauer doesn't satisfy himself with relating what happened, though. He addresses the many factors contributing to the disaster, and discusses briefly what might be changed to prevent other similar occurrences. In the telling he does question the behavior of one guide in particular, a guide employed by another company, Mountain Madness. This part of the book was challenged by that guide along with his co-author, who wrote another book, disputing several of the facts laid out in Krakauer's. At the end of this edition of the book (1999 - the original was published in 1997) is a postscript explaining the conflict that arose between the authors of the two books and subsequent actions. I found this postscript revealing and gripping as well.

The story is well documented and researched. Krakauer provides context with a history of Everest and its explorers, which I found invaluable.

Journal Entry 3 by jlautner at Henderson, Nevada USA on Saturday, December 2, 2017

Released 6 yrs ago (11/27/2017 UTC) at Henderson, Nevada USA

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Gave to daughter Elaine.

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