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Mistakes In Into Thin Air

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Mistakes That Lead to Tragedies and Precautions That Lead to Success
The best way to bring attention to a problem is tragedy. Unfortunately, this means reform will not happen until the loss or harm of life has already occurred. One example of this was seen in New York, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. This fire was the cause of 146 deaths and many more injuries; however, this lead to new law regulating work safety standards. While this is a tragedy that caused reform in 1911, the same method of reform stands today. This can be seen in the novel, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. The novel is an account of what happened on the mountain during the 1996 Everest expedition. While the expedition started off with high hopes and dreamers ready …show more content…

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

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