Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Boukreev's The Climb Essay

Jon Krakauer was asked by Outside Magazine to write an article about the commercialism on Everest. Of course, Krakauer knew he was going to get a lot of money out of it if he did it, so immediately he knew that he had to climb. While on the expedition, all the clients had a hard time adjusting to the altitude, tiring easily, losing weight, and moving slowly. Some of these individuals were people who had the ability to climb and some who were completely inexperienced. Jon Krakauer had some experience and was ahead of most of his teammates most of the time. He had no idea what lied in store for them, but that was something that he didn’t care

The book "Within Reach: My Everest Story" by Mark Pfetzer wand Jack Galvin is an autobiography written by Mark Pfestzer at the age of 16. Mark writes about his mountain climbing adventures over a 4 year period that started at the age of 12. The book covers the years of Mark's life mountain climbing from 1992 all the way up to 1996 when Mark is actually climbing on Mount Everest. The chapters in the book are written in a first person narrative with a dated diary format. Each one of Mark's entries talks about his struggles, adventures and personal experiences with the challenges of climbing a mountain.

The expedition guides show arrogance and pride while trying to climb Mount Everest. At one point Scott Fischer states that he has "built a yellow brick road to the summit" (Krakauer 86). Fischer has great pride in his ability to climb Everest he developed arrogance towards the mountain. It is foolish to think that someone

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

Krakauer was critical of Boukreev in this section of the climb because Boukreev was not using supplemental oxygen or a backpack, both of which Krakauer felt he should have had in the case of an emergency, as Boukreev was a guide, and charged with helping and protecting the clients, an ability which Krakauer thought was inhibited by this lack of oxygen and supplies, especially considering how much the high altitude and thin air affects the ability to think clearly.

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.

As much as I thought that the first chapter should have been removed, the book, overall, changed the way I viewed Mount Everest. The novel helps to understand that there is much more than just climbing up and down. For instance, when Krakauer talks about expenses and equipment, he says, “That autumn the ministry raised the permit fee again to fifty thousand dollars plus ten thousand dollars for each additional climber.” This shows that there is an extensive amount of planning and equipment to be covered. Krakauer also tells that a storm on Everest can be much more deadly than a storm at sea level. At the end of chapter twenty, he says, “Brice Herrod is now presumed dead, the twelfth casualty of the season.” Its descriptions like these which make me view Everest as both a great challenge, but also a potential deathtrap.

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.

Several expeditions set out to take on Mt. Everest In 1996. Jon Krakauer is assigned by Outside Magazine to write about the journey through Mt. Everest. It is Krakauer's lifelong dream to climb Mt. Everest. He has climbed many times before not never at such a high altitude. His team was led by Rob Hall, one of the most respected climbers of that time. His team is made up of many different people with

While most people would agree that wisdom comes with age and recklessness is for the young, such is not the case with Scott Fischer. Fischer, in stark contrast to Hall, was a man of forty with a very athletic build. Fischer was very passionate about climbing and had a strong desire to be the best yet his approach to climbing was reckless with little respect for his own welfare. Krakauer writes, "If the name of Hall’s business, Adventure Consultants, mirrored his methodical, fastidious approach to climbing, Mountain Madness was an even more accurate reflection of Scott’s personal style. By his early twenties, he had developed a reputation for a harrowing, damn-the-torpedoes approach to ascent" (62). Like Hall, Fischer had prior successful climbs, although on many occasions he had some climbing mishaps which could have cost him his life. Fischer did not have the "flair for publicity" like Hall creating the inability to gain many sponsorships in his climbing career. Like Hall, Fischer also climbed the summit of Mt. Everest but never as a guide. When Fischer opened Mountain Madness in 1996, it was his first

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.

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.

This novel, Into Thin Air, has impacted me in a multitude of ways. The first being the surprise that I felt throughout the book. All of the deaths and mishaps showed me that climbing Everest is not as easy and as simple as I thought it was. Krakauer also crashed a wave of sorrow on to me, as I felt bad for all of the people who lost family and friends in the disaster, or experienced it. Along with this, I was also impacted because the author was very informative about Everest and its history. He delved deep into the past beliefs about the mountain, the measurements, and different ways people have ascended the mountain. Before reading Into Thin Air I was very much clueless about any history or information surrounding the mountain.