Into Thin Air Analysis

In order to continue climbing Everest, many aspects of climbing need to be improved before more people endanger their lives to try and reach the roof of the world. The guides have some areas that need the most reform. During the ascension of Everest the guides made a plethora mistakes that seemed insignificant but only aided in disaster. The guides first mistake is allowing “any bloody idiot [with enough determination] up” Everest (Krakauer 153). By allowing “any bloody idiot” with no climbing experience to try and climb the most challenging mountain in the world, the guides are almost inviting trouble. Having inexperienced climbers decreases the trust a climbing team has in one another, causing an individual approach to climbing the mountain and more reliance on the guides. While this approach appears fine, this fault is seen in addition to another in Scott Fischer’s expedition Mountain Madness. Due to the carefree manner in which the expedition was run, “clients [moved] up and down the mountain independently during the acclimation period, [Fischer] had to make a number of hurried, unplanned excursions between Base Camp and the upper camps when several clients experienced problems and needed to be escorted down,” (154). Two problems present in the Mountain Madness expedition were seen before the summit push: the allowance of inexperienced climbers and an unplanned climbing regime. A third problem that aided disaster was the difference in opinion in regards to the responsibilities of a guide on Everest. One guide “went down alone many hours ahead of the clients” and went “without supplemental oxygen” (318). These three major issues: allowing anyone up the mountain, not having a plan to climb Everest and differences in opinion. All contributed to the disaster on Everest in

As an experienced mountaineer, Krakauer’s childhood dream had been to climb Mount Everest. This lingering dream was triggered with a full blast when he accepted the offer of being on Rob Hall’s leaded expedition as a reporter for Outside magazine. Krakauer had to change his attitude from a free-willed climber to an obedient client on the team and was concerned about his other fellow clients when they were first acquainted. “ In outlook and experience they were nothing like the hard-core climbers with whom I usually went into the mountains”. (Krakauer 39) In previous years, Krakauer had always climbed alone or with some trusted friends. He came to realize that one must completely rely on the guide instead of other clients on a guided expedition. After meeting the other clients, Krakauer develops a sense of superiority as he is one of the most experienced climbers on the team. It shocked him when the author found out that clients Beck Weathers, Stuart Hutchinson, and Lou Kasischke never tried on their mountaineering boots beforehand and Hutchinson even failed to notice his crampons (steel spikes that are attached to the bottom of boots to help with ice climbing) did not fit his boots. As the expedition drags on, Krakauer became more acquainted with the rest of his team members and has a change in mindset. “I learned that between the demands of their families and their high-powered careers, few of my fellow clients had had the opportunity to go climbing more than once or twice in the previous year…. But maybe I’m just being a snob, I scolded myself.” Krakauer admits through this context that he is deeply concerned about his inexperienced teammates although he realized that it is not up to him to worry about such things. He came to realize that although many other clients were extremely unexperienced, their goal to summit the

In the book “Into thin air” by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer sought to report and write about his climb up mount everest. He knew it wouldn't be easy, but he did not and could not have predicted the barriers and conflicts that were inflicted upon him, by the mountain and it’s atmosphere. Due to these barriers and conflicts, it would be naive to say that the main conflict wasn’t man vs nature. Nevertheless, Krakauer had the worst experience of his life, climbing and fighting against the physical and mental effects of Mount Everest.

In this passage from Jon Krauaker's Into Thin Air, Jon Krauaker does not display the sense of accomplishment that one would expect from achieving such a difficult endeavor. He really displays a sense of grief and dissatisfaction from what he had accomplished. For taking a risk as life threatening as this, in Krauaker's eyes, he couldn't possibly be proud of what he had done when so many men had lost their lives during the same excursion that he journeyed on. Throughout this novel, Jon Krauaker uses immense amounts of rhetorical devices to display his emotion to convey his attitude toward the dangers of climbing Mt. Everest.

Into Thin Air is a novel which provides a personal view from Jon Krakauer about a treacherous disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. After reading the novel, I can say the book came out to be much better than expected. Initially, I assumed that the book would simply guide a reader from Kathmandu to the summit, but the book held much more value within its pages. Although there is one component of the story that I disliked, I can still say that Into Thin Air is a very interesting novel which could both inspire people to climb Everest or stay away from it.

Despite his impressive record he had never attempted anything close to the scale of Everest, whose summit is at an extremely dangerous altitude. He even admits to his relative inexperience with high altitude saying, “Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet--not even as high as Everest Base Camp”(28). Krakauer also mentions how he has gotten out of shape over the years partially because of the lack of climbing in his life, making him even less prepared for the assent. Krakauer shows a definite fear of such a high mountain, referring to climbers who have perished in the past. He states that, “Many of those who died had been far stronger and possessed vastly more high-altitude experience than I.” (28). Even though Krakauer’s experience may be more relevant to the Everest assent than some of the other tourist climbers, it is nowhere near the level needed to be considered an elite climber.

Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air has many people making life-or-death decisions in a matter of minutes. In the midst of a disaster, many people will make decisions that are illogical.

Jon Krakauer is an American writer known for his writings about the great outdoors. After being introduced to mountaineering as a child, Krakauer devoted much of his life to mountain climbing, leading up to his 1996 expedition to Mt. Everest. In his Into Thin Air, Krakauer recounts the dangerous journey, in which four of his teammates had died. Krakauer’s love for adventure significantly impacted many of his literary works, including Into the Wild, which focuses on the value of life and death, especially when one ventures into the great outdoors.

Instead of risking their lives for their own glory, they do it to help others reach the summit and for the benefits that follow. Besides a natural love for climbing mountains, finances push them to attempt these expeditions over and over. There are reasons guides like Andy Hall feel high pressure to succeed and as Krakauer explains,, “he was savvy enough to understand that the more attention he got from the news media, the easier it would be to coax corporations to open their checkbooks” (32). Hall uses his media attention to fund trips to Mt. Everest and would do whatever it took to help an important climber reach the top and which is essentially where he finds his sense of accomplishment and media attention. Guides like Scott Fischer have to make a name for themselves first, and initially might do so unsafely. Don Peterson speaks of Fischer with awe, proclaiming, “It didn’t matter how much pain he was in- he would ignore it and keep going,” referring to Scott Fischers six months of traveling with “an open suppurating wound” (63). It is possible that with such desperation to succeed and be well known as a climber, guides would risk their lives by ignoring injuries and health. Its evident that even the most skilled still face challenges but continue to pursue a dangerous lifestyle for

Vulnerability impacts any individual throughout each new and interactive experience. To become vulnerable is to open up to the consequences of frantic outcomes. Individuals will lead to vulnerability to cope with a trauma that has created a solemn change to a lifestyle. Jon Krakauer explains how the trauma of Mt. Everest changed his outlooks on reality, through different coping mechanisms. Krakauer uses his writing in his book, Into Thin Air, to cope with the guilt of surviving the terror that occurred upon Mt. Everest, as well as to understand what actions caused each outcome. Within an excerpt from Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer is reflective towards his audience of how vulnerability shaped the experiences upon Mt. Everest to cope with the

Have you ever wondered what kind of hardships come with climbing the tallest mountain in the world before? Expectantly, the book Peak by Roland Smith and the movie Everest have a lot of similarities with some exceptionally prominent differences. From personal conflict and character conflict to the general aspect of climbing Mt. Everest, the book and the movie explore all different types of similarities and differences. Being similar, in both the movie and the book, the mountain always decides. The morals were constant and everyone experiences the same deal in similar ways. One significant difference came between Peak, the main character in the book, and Rob(5th summit attempt), the main character in the movie.

Into Thin Air is a nonfiction book documenting Jon Krakauer’s expedition to the summit of Mt Everest. The book contains aspects that a typical quest story includes: it has one motif, the characters are inexperienced and learn something about themselves, and the team faces challenges and trials on route. However the book also differs from a typical quest story because it makes the reader question morality and many of the main characters die. Into Thin Air has characteristics of both a quest story and a narrative with a complex allegory.

There is no doubt that anyone has heard about the famous Mount Everest. A majority of people go every year, whether they want to just see the sights or they actually dare to climb it and reach one of the greatest achievement of anyone's life. But for some people they do not enjoy the thought of people climbing the mountain and risking their life, in some cases taking their lives. In my opinion, I believe that if someone chooses to take the risk of climbing this potentially dangerous mountain, then they should understand every risk and every dangerous situation that they are going into.

On May 10, 1996 six people died trying to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. These people were parts of two expeditions that were in the Himalayas, preparing to ascend the summit for six weeks. The first group was under the direction of Rob Hall, who had put 39 paying clients on the summit in five years. Hall was considered the leader of the mountain and the man to see no matter what the discrepancy. Group two, headed by Fisher, who like Hall, was trying to start a profitable business in providing the experience of climbing Mt. Everest to all for the price of 60 to 70 thousand dollars. Unfortunatly, neither man would live to tell the tale of this expedition.

Rudi could have just given up and let the man die over there, but, he did not let that happen, and was successful in saving a life. Therefore, this shows that determination in mountain climbing can save and help mountain climber’s life from a dangerous and deadly situation. Also, this shows that mountain climbing can not be done without determination. The people who don’t venture out and are not strong-willed can’t reach the top of the majestic mountains and see the splendid view out there.