Mistakes In Into Thin Air

The Harvard Business School case Mount Everest – 1996 narrates the events of May 11, 1996, when 8 people-including the two expedition leaders— died during a climb to the tallest mountain in the world (five deaths are described in the case, three border police form India also died that day). This was dubbed the “deadliest day in the mountain’s history” (at least until April 18, 2014). The survivors and many analysts have tried to decipher what went wrong that day, find an underlying cause, and learn from the event.

The book Into Thin Air, written by Jon Krakauer, explores the struggle of man versus man and man versus nature. The very different personalities proved costly to everyone involved on the expedition. The team of climbers that were hiking toward the summit of Mt. Everest on May 10, 1996, was oblivious to what lay ahead of them. No matter how advanced the hikers were, Everest on this day would test the will and endurance of everyone attempting to reach the summit. The one element that no one person could elude was pain.

Into Thin Air tells the story of the tragedy where in 1996, several climbers died on the slopes of Mt. Everest. This was all witnessed by Jon Krakauer, a journalist and one of the climbers who reached the summit that year. Krakauer and the team he climbs with becomes separated through a series of accidents and a change in weather resulting in five teammates dead. Scott Fischer leads an expedition as well, and in that expedition he also loses climbers on the storm, including himself. Krakauer narrates the affairs of the expeditions and attempts to explain how the climbers could have been caught on the mountain when they could have turned and remained safe. He also communicates how he played a role in the events.

Success in the Mount Everest Simulation was not defined as reaching the summit of a mountain, but rather in terms of strong leadership, positive team work, logical decision making, and effective communication and dispute resolution to accomplish a specific task. Based on my personal experience, I realize the importance of knowing and understanding all team members. Fluid, open communication and positive feedback are key factors. Active listening, motivating, engaging, and valuing each team member’s contributions create an effective work environment. Mistakes happen, but valuable learning comes from the mistakes and our understanding of the challenges and opportunities to overcome them. If we, as team members, learn from our mistakes and are fully committed to the success of the team, we all

One of the most important qualities that an elite climber must have is leadership. The elite climbers and guides must be able to meet a number of new people that are strangers to each other and build some sense of a team. Krakauer does not have a strong background in leading groups or building comradery, which is key for a climb like Everest. Krakauer says himself, “In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern” (40). He also mentions how the actions of one climber can “affect the welfare of the entire team” (40). The type of group he climbed with on

Leadership failure is rarely discussed, and yet often represents the greatest potential risk to an organization or group in an unfamiliar situation. For the Everest Simulation, I held the role of team leader, in which I was required to achieve goals relating to a combined ascent and maintaining team safety. At completion, 13 of 20 individual goals, and 65% of overall team goals were accomplished. The lower rate of success was due to several ethical and leadership related failures, resulting in a team member being evacuated on the final ascent. Although the simulation could have been more successful, the team dynamics witnessed were enlightening as to what constitutes effective leadership and ethical decision making in a high-intensity situation.

Into Thin Air, a book about the Everest disaster in 1996, represents the human experience because Earth's elements are impartial and cannot comprehend ethnicity, gender or culture. People from various backgrounds were flocking to Nepal, with little in common, besides their hope of reaching the summit of Mount Everest. The 29,029 foot mountain, was incidentally forcing all who were facing it, to go through a similar journey of severe sickness, emotional crisis, extreme self-reliance and deadly encounters. The book speaks to all humanity because emotional and physical struggles are common experiences, diminished by human spirit and self-reliance. A true example of self-determination, Beck Weathers, was left for dead beside Yasuko Namba after

den for some fresh air, Berrykit who betrayed him with their help. Breezepelt hisses that he would start with Crowfeather. Brokenstar swishes his tail in the air, fueling Breezepelt fury apprentices of ThunderClan. He is seen stripping a leaf from its stalk when his brother, Dustpaw, attacks him. Alarmed, Ravenpaw jumps into the air. Bluestar away. He notes that the air is hotter than usual for late newleaf. Hearing the murmuring of excited cats gathering for the first patrols, he thinks Bramblestar Longtail: "But your eyes and nose are streaming." Mousefur: "It's just the cold air." —Longtail and Mousefur arguing over Jaypaw when he comes to check will ask him to take in some rogues again, her breath billowing in the cold night air, and Clear Sky answers that he hopes not.

During the first climb on September 1st, 2014, the team is still scattered and the members are reluctant to share information and opinions. At the first stage of the Everest, our appointed leader, Rachel accidentally submitted the final decision, making the whole team

The first reason the negatives of mountaineering Mount Everest outweigh the positives is that the cost of climbing Mount Everest is stated in source #2 when it states,”...when 234 climbers reached the summit… Each and every one of them had paid $10,000 for a climbing permit.” This displays how in total, they made 2,340,000, in just climbing permits alone not including climbing gear! Consequently, It also shows that Mount Everest can be closed for a short period of time and

Imagine yourself climbing Everest, the cold air in your lungs and your adrenaline rushing, because of the risk they’re taking. That feeling is what mountaineers crave. On April 18, 2014, an avalanche caused one of the greatest loss of life in the history of the fabled peek. Now the tragedy has sparked a debate on whether climbing Mt. Everest should continue to be permitted. In my opinion, regardless of the risk, I think people should still be able to climb Mt. Everest.

Have you ever asked yourself if climbing Mount Everest is bad idea I ask myself that question and I think that it is a bad climbing Mount Everest for: the climber , local population , and the environment. One example of why climbing Mount Everest is because for the climber they can get hurt and that is bad because they can get hurt like they can fall. A example for the local population is because they throw a lot of garbage and that can hurt the local population and how it can also hurt the people that is alos a example for the enviroment because that means that it csn hurt he enviroment

What happened on Everest in 1996? This case study is a perfect example of everything going wrong at precisely the right time. It wasn’t just bad luck, poor planning, inexperienced climbers, bad weather, or improper mindset, it was all of these things combined and more, at the most crucial of times that caused these people to die. The case study explains in great detail how these two groups of very driven people did not become a team or several teams and work together to reach their common goal. They each remained individuals working next to each other, but failing to see the value in teamwork. The two groups were led by some of the most experienced high altitude climbers in the world, but they did not communicate and pay attention to the signals that were very evident when viewed in hindsight, five people lost their

Summiting Everest commands visions of grandeur and personal heroism for some, but to many sherpas tasked with the greatest workload and the most to lose, Everest represents a hard, economically necessitated risk. In a climbing culture driven by commercialism, sherpas are arguably some of the most experienced and well adapted climbers on Mount Everest, yet have little to no say in addressing the issues of safety or working conditions that are brought on by commercial motives. Initiating transformational leadership can solve many of the symptomatic problems of commercialization. By affording more influence to experienced sherpas, embracing the intellectual stimulation of safety challenges, inspiring clients’ independence, and individually

Lack of psychological safety within the team members failed to fix cognitive bias of irrationality. If members developed trust within the team, cognitive bias could have been prevented or at least minimized. The truth that climbers might make irrational decisions and find it hard to turn back when they are so closed to the summit was obvious, but teammates seeing this problem did not speak up since they did not feel that their thoughts were welcome and felt uneasy. More cognitive biases could also been prevented to lessen the complex system of the expedition. Since climbing Mt. Everest is already a high risk venture, any additional problems such as irrational decisions can cause a crisis. Using the early sign of issues with Hall’s team’s progress, it was obvious that the probability of failing the expedition was high before the team even started. Hall could have used the issues as a sign of the complex systems that exist, and could have used this knowledge to prevent any irrational decisions. The complex systems and the lack of psychological safety also contributed to the tragedy. The team members failed to communicate and trust each other, which then added more problems to the complex systems. For instance, Boukreev’s could have spoken up to his team leader, Fischer, about his concerns regarding his team members lacking experience to begin with. By speaking up, he could have prevented more chain reaction due to lack of communications and feedback within the