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

Jon Krakauer, Randy Rackliff, Daniel Rembert, Caroline Cunningham, Anita Karl · 4 HN comments
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Amazon Summary
National Bestseller A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster. By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy.  "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air 's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment."  According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer.  His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."
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This reminds me of a great book I read, "Into Thin Air"[0]. If you're interested in getting a first-hand account of climbing Everest, and what effect novice climbers have had on it, definitely give it a read.

[0]https://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/03...

yazr
I read this knee-deep in snow on the Annapurna Range.

Still keeps me the creeps...

Sep 21, 2015 · bootload on Lost on Everest (1996)
I was looking for the original Jon Krakauer article, "Into Thin Air" [0] instead I found this article of which I had no prior knowledge. Compare the submitted article to Krakauers' latest article "Death & Anger on Everest" [1] and you'll get an idea of how much easier Everest is too summit.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/038...

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/death-and-anger-on-e...

A progression of books on high altitude climbing. Have read Into thin air, the climb, dark summit in the past month or two, currently reading no way down and have Annapurna: The first conquest of a 8000m peak and The will to climb out from the library.

Reason, finally have the motivation to loose weight and get fit, and am planing to do some climbing locally.

http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/038... http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Summit-Everests-Controversial-Sea... http://www.amazon.com/No-Way-Down-Life-Death/dp/0061834793/r... http://www.amazon.com/Annapurna-First-Conquest-000-Meter-Pea... http://www.amazon.com/The-Will-Climb-Commitment-Annapurna/dp...

I think you are making several incorrect and unfair generalizations.

Calling those climbers "rich idiots" is unnecessary, and hugely inaccurate. Nearly all guided Everest expeditions require previous high-peak mountaineering experience to join the expedition, in places such as Aconcagua and Denali [1][2][3]. Technical familiarity with crampons, ice-axe, etc' is a must, and a high level of fitness is required.

People who join those expeditions are not "rich idiots" who think they are going on a cruise. They are amateur climbers with money, who are interested in broadening their climbing experience and achieving their personal goals.

Guiding companies provide a relatively safe opportunity for those climbers to achieve this, as this is something they cannot do by themselves.

I also wouldn't be so quick to pass moral judgments on things that happen 8000+ meters above sea level, in conditions of extreme fatigue, after several weeks of hiking/climbing. What you think you would do while sitting on a chair in front of your computer is not necessarily what you would've done were you actually there.

I recommend reading something like Into thin Air [4] to get a better perspective on what happens on those climbs.

[1] http://www.alpineascents.com/everest.asp [2] http://www.rmiguides.com/himalaya/everest/ [3] http://www.adventureconsultants.com/adventure/FAQEverest/ [4] http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-Personal-Disaster/dp/038...

mailshanx
Well, ice-axe and crampon competency is the bare minimum necessary to even step on a snow mountain. Granted that Denali is a hard climb, but still, if that has been your only climbing experience you are woefully unprepared to attempt Everest.
pavelrub
Thanks for your input on what's required to climb Everest. I will pass that on to Ed Viesturs [1] from RMI Expeditions so that he will change the requirements listed on their website, based on your superior experience of actually taking up climbers to the summit.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Viesturs

exDM69
> I think you are making several incorrect and unfair generalizations.

> Calling those climbers "rich idiots" is unnecessary, and hugely inaccurate. Nearly all guided Everest expeditions require previous high-peak mountaineering experience to join the expedition, in places such as Aconcagua and Denali [1][2][3]. Technical familiarity with crampons, ice-axe, etc' is a must, and a high level of fitness is required.

I agree that it's a bit of an exaggeration and most expedition organizers are responsible and take preparations seriously and require their participants to be in good health and fine physical fitness.

And then there are the organizers that aren't. In the Discovery documentary, there was one particular group of Chinese climbers who were practically pulled up the hill with ropes by their sherpas.

Even the group who were followed in that documentary, from an organizer with a good reputation, led by a well known mountaineer had some members whose physical condition was a bit questionable. There was a motorcycle accident victim who could barely keep up with the climbers at the lower camps and in the end refused to turn back when told so by the expedition leader, putting himself and his sherpas at peril. But most of that group were fine climbers with proper preparations.

I do understand that judgment doesn't quite work well at 8000+ meters, even with supplemental oxygen. I do not want to make moral judgments about the case above, but I do want to raise a discussion about the subject.

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