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Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

Jon Krakauer (Goodreads Author)

4.18 · Rating details · 392,985 ratings · 13,680 reviews

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 ...more

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Paperback, 368 pages

Published October 19th 1999 by Anchor Books (first published May 1st 1997)

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Jun 19, 2009 Cassy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: from-dad, region-asia, physical-own, 2011, non-fiction-general

Life got you down? Then join us on a guided expedition led by Capital Idiocy Inc. as we climb to...

The Summit of MOUNT EVEREST

For the bargain price of $65,000,[1] we will take you on the adventure of a lifetime full of scenic views,[2] camaraderie,[3] and athleticism.[4]

Worried that you lack the necessary climbing experience?
Don’t be discouraged![5] While Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, it is not the most technically challenging climb. And in addition to our expertise an ...more

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Nov 28, 2018 jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

i havent left my house in 37 days and i think its finally getting to me because, after reading this, i immediately thought, ‘climbing everest sounds like fun.’

its official - ive gone insane.

___________________________

i feel beyond guilty for finding so much fascination with what was the most horrific moment in krakauers life. i am a terrible human, but i honestly couldnt put this down.

there is just something about krakauers writing that makes me think his grocery lists are equally alluring. an ...more

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Nov 20, 2010 karen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: and-so-this-is-grad-school, nature-will-end-you

RELEASE THE KRAKAUER!!!!

seriously, it is time to just raze everest and be done with it already. i mean, it's big and impressive but it is just taking up all this room and killing people so why do we even need it anymore?? can't we just get over it? really, i think it has reached its peak and is all downhill from here.

shameless punning aside.

so this started out as an article that KRAKAUER was asked to write for outside magazine about the commercialization of everest. it should embarrass us that s ...more

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Jun 21, 2007 Brigette rated it it was amazing

I recently attended the Banff mountain film festival in Canada. One of the key speakers was Simone Moro, the close friend of Anatoli Boukreev, the climber who was killed in an avalanche several years ago on Annapurna and whom Krakauer pretty much vilifies in this book as not having done enough to save the lives of those caught in the blizzard on Mount Everest in May of 1996. Needless to say, the vibe in the room was chilly whenever the subject of Krakauer's version of events came up; he was accu I recently attended the Banff mountain film festival in Canada. One of the key speakers was Simone Moro, the close friend of Anatoli Boukreev, the climber who was killed in an avalanche several years ago on Annapurna and whom Krakauer pretty much vilifies in this book as not having done enough to save the lives of those caught in the blizzard on Mount Everest in May of 1996. Needless to say, the vibe in the room was chilly whenever the subject of Krakauer's version of events came up; he was accused of slander and some in the room even claimed that he had not done much himself to save the lives of those in danger during the Everest disaster.

Nevertheless, as a reader of climbing nonfiction, I stand by Krakauer. I have always found his account of the Everest disaster an intensely moving and thought-provoking one. Like Joe Simpson's books, Into Thin Air reveals its speaker to be a climber with a conscience. Kraukauer loves climbing but is completely honest about the fact that such a dangerous sport so often puts one in the agonizing position of having to make life or death decisions under conditions that make clear thinking nearly impossible-- the cold, the lack of oxygen, the immense strain on the body at that great elevation. One gets the sense while reading that he is trying to make sense of this crazy sport as he writes, that this book is his process of figuring out the answer to the question: with all of the dangers and fatalities that result from climbing Everest, why on earth do people actually sign themselves up for this kind of thing?

In the years since I first picked up this book, I have discovered many other great climbing books in the adventure genre, although Krakauer's remains one of my all-time favorites. For more accounts of the Everest disaster, see also Boukreev's The Climb and Beck Weather's Left for Dead. If you enjoy Krakauer's writing, you might also enjoy Nando Parrado's Miracle in the Andes, a true account of the narrow escape of some members of a Uruguayan rugby team that survived by any means necessary-- and I do mean ANY means necessary--two grueling months in the Andes after their plane crashed in the mountains on the way home from a game. In addition, Joe Simpson's Touching the Void is a similarly remarkable story of a climber who survives unlikely odds after breaking his leg on the side of the mountain Siula Grande in Peru. There are also movie versions of both (Titled Alive and Touching the Void, respectively.) In addition, a movie version is due out soon for one of Krakauer's other wilderness adventure books, Into The Wild. ...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Petra-X rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography-true-story, reviewed

Into Thin Air or Injustice (of many kinds) on the Mountain.

Until almost the end this book was exactly as I expected it to be with just one exception. It was the story of a journalist climbing Mount Everest both as a journalist and as a mountaineer. Ideal getting paid to do your hobby! It was interesting because Krakauer is a damn good writer and because its fascinating to see the details of how the mountain is climbed.

It's also disappointing because few individuals do it by themselves, without Into Thin Air or Injustice (of many kinds) on the Mountain.

Until almost the end this book was exactly as I expected it to be with just one exception. It was the story of a journalist climbing Mount Everest both as a journalist and as a mountaineer. Ideal getting paid to do your hobby! It was interesting because Krakauer is a damn good writer and because its fascinating to see the details of how the mountain is climbed.

It's also disappointing because few individuals do it by themselves, without a major support, like the guy who bicycled all the way around Europe to Nepal and then climbed the mountain alone (I would have liked to have read his story but it was only alluded to in the book. **I later read his book Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey).

For everyone else its a package tour for the fit and not-necessarily experienced who want to climb Everest and have an awful lot of spare cash. Transport is arranged, tents are set up, luggage is carried, there will be steaming hot tea awaiting the climbers on their return to their tents after an expedition, and if they really can't climb well, they can be short-roped and pulled up. Short-roped is the climber roping themselves with a less-than-one-metre rope to the waist of the would-be-climber and literally hauling them up.

Still, even with all this portering and pampering I was surprised that the first climbers of the season (using last year's ropes) fitted ropes up Everest so that the climbers didn't have to set their own. More than that, the really difficult bits got ladders installed! But no matter how many shortcuts and easements they are able to achieve there are two things that can neither be predicted nor controlled. One is altitude sickness which in some forms can kill very quickly, and in others causes mental delusions that led one of the team to his death. And the other is the weather. 15 climbers died the year Krakauer climbed.

At the beginning of this review, I mentioned there was one exception to my expectations for this book based on several books I have read by this author. The exception was one extraordinary chapter full of the most vituperative nastiness against a socialite climber. I didn't know why it was there. He didn't get any nicer towards her as the book progressed either, but then he said that when he was writing the book he had a 75 minute phone conversation with her. Either she didn't know what he'd written - I would never bother wasting time on someone who had that little respect for me and intended to tell the world - or he didn't write it until after the phone conversation. My only reaction to the chapter was thinking that the author was such a damn bitch.

The last chapter was tremendously interesting. Krakauer had not had much respect for another of the climbers - the guide and tour leader Anatoli Boukreev. He felt that Boukreev was more fulfilling his own ambitions of climbing than in sticking to his job of helping others to climb and looking after their safety. Boukreev wrote his own book saying that Krakauer had not mentioned certain incidents somewhat detrimental to himself and that he had made some observational errors, either through oxygen deprivation or wilfullness, and gave his own version of the climb. This argy-bargy went back and forth in print and on tv, and this chapter is Krakauer defending himself. Sadly Boukreev, a climber par excellence, was buried under an avalanche on Annapurna the following year, in 1997, so we will never get to hear what he thought of Krakauer's defence.

The book is worth reading because the Sherpas have always been sidelined in stories of climbing Everest. As if it is somehow more praiseworthy for a White man to climb the mountain and its nothing really for the Sherpas who can just hop up and down like monkeys carrying all the loads while the white man Climbs. This book sets the record straight. The mountain could not be the business it is without the Sherpas.

The tour companies and guides have enormous respect for these men and their abilities and form as firm friendships with them as they do with anyone else in their lives. Its a shame that this respect doesn't extend to paying them more than the one-tenth they earn compared to the tour guides but of course its justified in the traditional way - this is local wages, this is a lot of money for the locals, the locals don't need the things the guides from America, Australia etc do... Oh YAWN, I've heard it all before. Why can't people just put their money where their mouth is. You can't pay bills and put your kids through school on respect. Reduced by 1-star to four stars because of this.

Rewritten 7 May 2020 due to Covid-19 boredom, finding the book and skimming through it. ...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Steve rated it liked it

Note to self: take climbing Everest off bucket list.

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Mar 23, 2020 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering, travel-adventure, journalism, disaster, memoirs, outdoors

“[T]he sort of individual who is programmed to ignore personal distress and keep pushing for the top is frequently programmed to disregard signs of grave and imminent danger as well. This forms the nub of a dilemma that every Everest climber eventually comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven, but if you’re too driven you’re likely to die. Above 26,000 feet, moreover, the line between appropriate zeal and reckless summit fever becomes grievously thin. Thus the slopes ...more

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Nov 30, 2007 Michelle rated it liked it

Recommends it for: mountaineers, adventure lovers, crazy people

Shelves: non-fiction

This is not a review. I don’t feel like writing a review for this book, but I feel like I should at least say something about it because I did enjoy it. I mean, it did make me utter “Jesus Christ” out loud more than one time, and I don’t often talk to myself while I am reading a book.

(I almost want to post a picture of a LOLcat with a caption that says “This buk wuz gud,” but I don’t have one.)

So…These are a few things I learned from reading this book:

1. If a person decides to climb Everest, the This is not a review. I don’t feel like writing a review for this book, but I feel like I should at least say something about it because I did enjoy it. I mean, it did make me utter “Jesus Christ” out loud more than one time, and I don’t often talk to myself while I am reading a book.

(I almost want to post a picture of a LOLcat with a caption that says “This buk wuz gud,” but I don’t have one.)

So…These are a few things I learned from reading this book:

1. If a person decides to climb Everest, they are likely to encounter dead bodies along the route up to the summit.

2. Lobuje, which is on the way to Everest Base Camp, is a place that overflows with human excrement. While Krakauer was there in 1996, he wrote "Huge stinking piles of human feces lay everywhere; it was impossible not to walk in it." Lovely. Insert “Want to get away from it all?” commercial here.

3. Without the assistance of Sherpas, it is unlikely that climbers would be able to reach the summit at all. Besides schlepping tons of your crap, they also know the way, and they place climbing ropes and in some instances, repair ladders, so people will be able to ascend the trickier places.

The place would also be a lot dirtier without them because they are partially responsible for removing some of the trash that Everest has accumulated over the years. One camp reported having around a thousand empty canisters of supplemental oxygen (as I said below in a review comment, so I might as well stick it in here, too).

4. In 1996, it cost $65,000 to be a client on a guided tour climbing Everest.

5. It is very easy to develop high-altitude sicknesses and/or hallucinations as a climber gets closer to the summit. In fact, the "every man/woman for him/herself" attitude that people had, whether or not they had to have it in order to survive, was more than a little disturbing.

On this particular excursion, two climbers got stuck on the mountain during a storm. They spent the night at 28,000 feet without shelter or supplemental oxygen and were believed to be dead. The guide sent to look for them the next day found them barely breathing after chipping off three inches of ice from their faces. Believing that they were beyond help, he left them there. One of the climbers, my personal hero, woke up from his coma hours later and was lucid enough to get himself back down to one of the camps. Sure, he lost half an arm, his nose, and all of the digits on his other hand to frostbite, but he's still alive.

Oh, and sure, the events that happened on Mt. Everest in 1996 were tragic, but I do think the people who climb it know what they are risking. ...more

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Nov 18, 2017 Paul Bryant rated it liked it

Shelves: autobiography-memoir

This book suddenly became very relevant - no less than TEN climbers have died this week (18-25 May 2019) on Everest. The reason for this horrible turn of events is given as inexperienced guides leading inexperienced climbers combined with the usual weather restrictions leading to these ghastly insane queueing situations :

Yes, that's the top of the highest mountain in the world.

Anyway, original review follows :

*********************************************************

TEENAGE HAIR-KISSING BOOK DEF ...more

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Sep 07, 2015 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, own-it-spent-my-food-money-on-it, read-in-2015

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

“Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics, and others with a shaky hold on reality.”

Welcome to one of Kelly’s creepy obsessions! (Advance apologies - this might get rambly.) Okay, so I’m totally obsessed with all things Everest and CAN. NOT. WAIT. to see the movie that details the same tragic events which are covered in this book (even though just watching the preview in IMAX 3-D made me ...more

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Jan 07, 2018 Michael rated it it was amazing

Utterly harrowing and propulsive. I could not put this book down. This is another book that details people's misguided quests to conquer nature--to see nature as something to be conquered. It's also another great cold-weather read, to make you realize that, really, it's not so cold out after all.

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Apr 20, 2017 Maxwell rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, owned

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of non-fiction. I prefer to listen to podcasts or interviews, rather than read straight-up non-fiction about a certain topic. And as someone who isn't particularly interested in climbing or sports in general, this wouldn't be a book that I'd normally read. But I'm so glad that I did.

It definitely reads more like a memoir, since the author was present for the events of the story. That made it a much more palatable read for me, rather than a ...more

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Sep 03, 2019 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: 20th-century, history, literature, adventure, travel, non-fiction, memoir, biography, united-states

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997 bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer.

It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm.

Krakauer's expedition was led by guide Rob Hall. Other groups were trying to summit on the same day, including one led by Scott Fischer, whose guiding agency, Mountain Madness, was perceived as a c Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997 bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer.

It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm.

Krakauer's expedition was led by guide Rob Hall. Other groups were trying to summit on the same day, including one led by Scott Fischer, whose guiding agency, Mountain Madness, was perceived as a competitor to Hall's agency, Adventure Consultants.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز چهارم ماه سپتامبر سال 2010 میلادی

عنوان: در هوای رقیق؛ نویسنده: جان کراکائور؛ مترجم یحیی خوئی؛ تهران چشمه‏‫، ‏‫1387؛ در 355ص؛ مصر، نقشه، شابک 9789643624897؛ موضوع: داستان گروه‌های کوهنوردی - اورست از نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 20م

بسوی هوای رقیق: برداشتی شخصی از فاجعه ی «کوه اورست»، یا «در هوای رقیق»، یکی از پرفروش‌ترین آثار غیرداستانی سال 1997میلادی و به قلم «جان کراکائر» است؛ این کتاب جزئیات حضور نویسنده در «کوه اورست» در خلال فاجعه ی سال 1996میلادی «کوه اورست» را به تصویر کشیده‌ است؛ جاییکه هشت کوهنورد جان باختند، و بسیاری دیگر، در طوفانی سخت، گرفتار آمدند؛ اردویی که نویسنده در آن به سر می‌برد، به رهبری «راب هال» پیش می‌رفت، در حالیکه گروه‌های دیگری نیز، در همان روز، می‌خواستند قله را فتح کنند؛ یکی از این گروه‌ها، «جنون کوه» به رهبری «اسکات فیشر» بود، که با گروه «راب»، «مشاوران ماجراجویی» رقیب به حساب می‌آمد؛ در سال 1997میلادی اقتباسی سینمایی از این کتاب، با عنوان «در هوای رقیق: مرگ در اورست» به کارگردانی «رابرت مارکویتز» ساخته شد؛ فیلم دیگری هم در مورد این فاجعه در سال 2015میلادی با عنوان «اورست» ساخته شد ،که به ادعای کارگردان، «بالتاسار کورماکور» این کتاب تنها منبع آن نبوده‌ و منابع دیگری نیز داشته است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/04/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Sep 12, 2012 David Schaafsma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nature, sports, non-fiction

I call attention to Paul Bryant's entertaining review of this book:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Which itself calls attention to the several people who have died on Everest in the past WEEK, not dissuaded by this story, obviously, which every climber knows well in multiple versions. This is the thing about risk-takers, death-defiers, mountain climbers, they must do what they must do.

I love this book. I listened to it on a road trip from Chicago to New Orleans on my spring break, 2004. ...more

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Jan 16, 2018 Katie rated it really liked it

What a read to start 2018! I enjoyed the majority of this, and I'll admit I fell down a bit of a black hole when it came to the controversy behind Krakauer's perspective. Review will be up tomorrow! :)

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Jan 22, 2020 Madeline rated it really liked it

This is a story that sounds too unlikely, too cinematic, to make up. In 1996, journalist and mountain climber Jon Kraukauer was assigned to cover an Everest ascent expedition, and chronicle the experiences of people – some experienced climbers, some not - who paid a small fortune for the chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kraukauer was a member of one of three American-led climbing teams that would attempt to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. By the time the teams made their way back This is a story that sounds too unlikely, too cinematic, to make up. In 1996, journalist and mountain climber Jon Kraukauer was assigned to cover an Everest ascent expedition, and chronicle the experiences of people – some experienced climbers, some not - who paid a small fortune for the chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kraukauer was a member of one of three American-led climbing teams that would attempt to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. By the time the teams made their way back to Base Camp, eleven people had died on the mountain.

Kraukauer’s book describes the journey to Everest, the different people on the teams, the storm that scattered the group just below the summit, and the deadly aftermath. This book, among other things, seeks to rationalize the decisions and behaviors of some of the people in the group, and understand how so many died in such a senseless way. Kraukauer himself, because he was part of the team, isn’t an impartial witness, and the book doesn’t shy away from his own culpability – at least two of the deaths that occurred during the expedition were very likely a direct result of Kraukauer’s own actions.

There are two main draws to this book: first, you get a firsthand view of what exactly goes into an Everest expedition, so you never have to actually do it yourself (seriously, DO NOT CLIMB EVEREST. EVEN IF YOU DON’T DIE (and we’ll get to that) IT’S STILL A TERRIBLE IDEA), and then you get Kraukauer’s in-depth investigation of deaths that he himself may have been instrumental in. He also attempts to explain how a person decides to climb the highest mountain in the world, and why anyone would want to do this. For me, this was the only real weak point of the book, because despite Kraukauer’s best efforts, I never once thought to myself, yeah, climbing Everest sounds like a totally reasonable thing to attempt.

Seriously, Everest is bullshit and it was all I could talk about for days after finishing this book. For one thing, Everest isn’t even a difficult climb, if you look at it from a technical standpoint. It’s only hard because the high altitude will literally kill you – the climb itself is not hard. At one point, the team climbs a bunch of ladders that were tied to a rock face by a team back in the 1970s.

And another fun fact I learned from this book is that there are two main ways to die on Everest: first, you can lose your footing and fall into a crevasse, or just slide right off a fucking cliff, and die instantly from the fall. This is the easy way to die on Everest. The hard way is you get altitude sickness (which is a nice way of putting it – past a certain altitude, even if you have supplemental oxygen, your brain literally starts to die) and collapse, and can’t get up. And then your team just has to LEAVE YOU THERE, because they sure as hell can’t carry you down, so you get to just lie there in the snow, fully conscious, and wait to die. And then your corpse becomes a landmark, along with all the other dead bodies that are just SITTING UP THERE. (There’s a really good My Favorite Murder podcast episode where they talk about the bodies on Everest, and it is straight-up heartbreaking.)

Aside from examining his own role in the tragedy and getting others’ versions of what happened, Kraukauer also spends some time discussing whether it’s even a good idea for people to attempt Everest in the first place. Aside from the very real risk of death, Kraukauer also considers the ethics of employing local Sherpa guides, and whether supplemental oxygen ultimately helps or hurts climbers. And, on top of all of that, this book is essentially a murder investigation – Kraukauer goes over the events of the fateful day, interviews the other surviving climbers, and evaluates the decisions of the guides and what role they may have played in the tragedy. He manages to strike a good balance of not avoiding his own responsibility in the tragedy, while also reminding readers that he and the other climbers were suffering from severe oxygen deprivation, and therefore both their decision-making abilities and their memories are not fully functional.

It’s easy to read Kraukauer’s other book of tragedy in the wilderness, Into the Wild, with a certain degree of superiority. Christopher McCandless died because he was woefully unprepared to survive in the wild, and his lack of knowledge and naivety killed him. But, as Into Thin Air proves, you can be a seasoned professional with thousands of successful climbs under your belt, and still die because of one stupid mistake, because Nature doesn’t care. Anyone can (and does) die on Everest, and Kraukauer’s book examines, among other things, whether it’s worth it. ...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Arah-Lynda rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Arah-Lynda by: Arah-Leah Hay

Shelves: i-said, top, lets-get-real

Several authors and editors I respect counseled me not to write the book as quickly as I did; they urged me to wait two or three years and put some distance between me and the expedition in order to gain some crucial perspective. Their advice was sound, but in the end I ignored it- mostly because what happened on the mountain was gnawing my guts out. I thought that writing the book might purge Everest from my life. It hasn’t of course.

But it is the way this reads, as Jon Krakauer, a client of R ...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Elyse Walters added it

I can't even imagine how Jon Krakauer was able to write this story which came out
in 2007, just one year after the deadly expedition in May 1996....where nine climbers
were killed on Mount Everest.

Krakauer is an astonishing journalist, and writer. His telling 'this' story was particularly
compelling being an experienced climber himself. He was physically there when the tragedy took place.

"Descending from Camp Four after the storm, at 25,000 feet, Krakauer turned to look back
at the upper reach ...more

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May 18, 2018 Ginger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, 2018

I absolutely loved this!! I had a feeling that I would due to my personal experience hiking and climbing in the Pacific Northwest region.

"Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?"
This question was asked of George Leigh Mallory, a Himalayan mountain climber in 1921.
And his answer was,
"Because it’s there."

This might not make sense to someone who’s not into this sport or adventure, but to me, I get it.
Why do I test myself on grueling 4500’ elevation hikes or scrambles?

Well, to get to the top!
To cha ...more

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Apr 22, 2017 Natalie Vellacott rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography

This is probably the best climbing book I have read despite the controversy surrounding some aspects. It was as enthralling as books like Endurance and as readable. I was with the author on the mountain and felt the terrible pain of the losses they endured, the guilt of the survivors and the many "what ifs" after the event.

The author relays his personal experiences climbing Everest in 1996 with a number of groups. This was the tragic year when many of the participants didn't make it off the moun This is probably the best climbing book I have read despite the controversy surrounding some aspects. It was as enthralling as books like Endurance and as readable. I was with the author on the mountain and felt the terrible pain of the losses they endured, the guilt of the survivors and the many "what ifs" after the event.

The author relays his personal experiences climbing Everest in 1996 with a number of groups. This was the tragic year when many of the participants didn't make it off the mountain due to a catalogue of errors and an untimely snow storm. He also documents a lot of the history of other climbs and delves into the personalities and characters of some of the great climbers.

More generally, I am drawn to these adventure books and stories which hold a certain fascination. But whenever I read about the cost ($70,000 minimum,) the risk ( 1 in 4 people die in an Everest attempt) and the pain and possible life changing injuries from frost bite, I am always glad I can just read about it from the warmth and comfort of a safe altitude on dry ground.

There is something unique about people who set out to achieve these goals. Krakauer describes them like this

To become a climber was to join a self-contained, rabidly idealistic society, largely unnoticed and surprisingly uncorrupted by the world at large. The culture of ascent was characterised by intense competition and undiluted machismo, but for the most part, its constituents were concerned with impressing one another only. Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the more unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable

I find myself wondering how they feel when it is all over. They have spent a fortune, risked everything, endured much pain, put their waiting family through a nightmare and possibly lost colleagues or friends to a gruesome death. What is it all for? Is it worth it? What are they really seeking?

Reading books like this, one might suppose that most climbers do it for the beauty of the scenery or the thrill of the surroundings. However, it is clear from this book and others that these aspects very much take a back seat. Instead, it is a competition to be the best in the field and it can take over a person's life. Climbing mountains is what they dream about and ultimately what they live for. It can become an obsession in the same way that sport or work or any other hobby can. That is when it becomes dangerous and purposeless.

God created each of us with a vacuum that only He can fill. Man will seek to deny this and seek pleasure and fulfillment in many places other than God. These things then become idols. They must be kept in their proper place and we need to keep a proper perspective.

This is a great book. The strong language is not so great hence the less than perfect rating. There is no sexual content and no violence. There are upsetting scenes of death.

...more

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Nov 29, 2015 Caroline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Caroline by: Jon

Shelves: nonfiction, page-turner, he-wrote-it, the-inside-story, reading-slump-remedies

***NO SPOILERS***

May 10, 1996 was a very, very bad day to be climbing to “the roof of the world.” On that day, journalist and avid mountain climber Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest with a group as part of a guided expedition. He was on assignment for “Outside” magazine and was one of the few in his group to survive this expedition after a ferocious storm hit out of the blue. Into Thin Air is as much a meticulous detailing of this tragedy as it is a personal catharsis: “ . . . what ***NO SPOILERS***

May 10, 1996 was a very, very bad day to be climbing to “the roof of the world.” On that day, journalist and avid mountain climber Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest with a group as part of a guided expedition. He was on assignment for “Outside” magazine and was one of the few in his group to survive this expedition after a ferocious storm hit out of the blue. Into Thin Air is as much a meticulous detailing of this tragedy as it is a personal catharsis: “ . . . what happened on the mountain was gnawing my guts out. I thought that writing the book might purge Everest from my life.”

For those who know little to nothing about climbing Mt. Everest (or mountain climbing in general) Into Thin Air is a good place to start. There’s a lot that’s covered, and Krakauer’s a very well-organized writer who didn’t skimp on the details necessary to bring to life the reality of high-altitude climbing. It’s pretty grim, at best: Mt. Everest climbers are guaranteed to encounter plenty of corpses on their journey to the summit (there are now more than 235 on the mountain); they must travel across crevasses via metal ladders; and they’ll struggle for breath more and more the higher they climb. The harshest reality? That one in ten dies. This climb could be ultimate adventure or agonizing death. Krakauer explained all this in a highly engaging, vivid manner. At no time is any of this dry, and even for those who aren’t outdoors types, Into Thin Air will prove compelling.

Something Krakauer made clear early on is how very crucial adequate acclimatization is. No climber arrives at the foot of the mountain and just starts climbing. Climbing is done in a series of organized phases, with climbers climbing to and resting for a few days at a series of five camps located at increasing altitudes on the mountain.

He also gave lots of attention to the growing commercialization of climbing Mt. Everest, and it’s fascinating to read about. This awe-inspiring mountain may be a natural wonder, but access to it is far from free. Anyone who wishes to climb it must fork over tens of thousands of dollars, and most climb as part of guided expeditions.

Though Krakauer is a journalist, his style is never unfeeling or distant. Intermingled with climbing facts and thorough portraits of the other climbers on the mountain are his own musings, fears, and personal admissions. A few times he wondered whether he was being snobby in his judgments of the others in his group; he described crushing, altitude-induced headaches so excruciating that even moving his eyeballs hurt; he struggled greatly with survivor’s guilt after so many of his new friends died hideous deaths. At one point, thinking about a missing friend that he’d spent an hour searching for in vain: “I fell to my knees with dry heaves, retching over and over as the icy wind blasted against my back.”

Krakauer was so forthright and unafraid to share his lowest moments and the feelings of guilt that consumed him that I also felt that anguish. There’s simply no way not to empathize with him. To my disbelief, some critics have called Krakauer “cowardly” and “selfish.” I can only wonder exactly how much better they'd behave under the same horrendous circumstances.

On the surface, Into Thin Air is a story about mountain climbing and tragedy, but deep down it’s an emotional survival story. It has a universal resonance. All lovers of nonfiction--outdoorsy or not--will want to read this. ...more

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Nov 16, 2019 Meike rated it really liked it

Shelves: usa, 2019-read

Until 2014, one of the trail markers for mountaineers climbing the Everest on the main Northeast ridge route was "Green Boots", the corpse of a man wearing, well, green climbing boots - yes, a dead man was an Everest landmark, and people passed him by and photographed him (I will certainly not provide links). Most likely, it was the body of Head Constable Tsewang Paljor of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police who was part of an expedition that happened in the background of the 1996 Mount Everest disas Until 2014, one of the trail markers for mountaineers climbing the Everest on the main Northeast ridge route was "Green Boots", the corpse of a man wearing, well, green climbing boots - yes, a dead man was an Everest landmark, and people passed him by and photographed him (I will certainly not provide links). Most likely, it was the body of Head Constable Tsewang Paljor of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police who was part of an expedition that happened in the background of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, which is the main topic of Krakauer's book. While the corpse is not at that specific place anymore, Mr. Paljor's body is presumably still somewhere up there, but no one can say with certainty - what is certain though is that the cynicism and sensationalism that "Green Boots'" treatment illustrates is very telling and that the impulses behind it are an underlying theme of "Into Thin Air".

American journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer was part of an expedition that aimed to summit Mount Everest in May 1996, the same day as several other groups of climbers. Due to a series of unfortunate events, wrong decisions and an upcoming storm, eight mountaineers died and several got severely injured and almost froze to death. While Krakauer's account of the unfolding tragedy is certainly intriguing, the psychological dimension is what fascinated me: Why are people deciding to summit Everest, and what are the moral implications? Krakauer talks about motivational factors like a love of nature and a longing for adventure, but also vanity, the impulse to challenge oneself and the wish to stand out, all characteristics represented by members of the expeditions. Some mountaineers are unable or unwilling to question their own abilities, thus threatening the lives of other climbers and the sherpas who often risk everything for their rich clients in order to be able to feed their families. (After an ice avalanche killed 16 sherpas in 2014, the sherpas went on strike to push for better working conditions.)

The commercialization of Everest is an important topic in the book: The heads of the expeditions aim to guide as many participants to the summit as possible - they assume that especially Krakauer, the reporter, and Sandy Pittmann, the society girl, will generate publicity when they get home to tell their stories. Commercial expeditions are a competitive business, and clients who pay tens of thousands of dollars to take on Everest are very motivated to make it to the top - and this tunnel vision is potentially deadly for everyone involved. On the highest mountain of the world, the lack of humility can be a death sentence.

Since Krakauer wrote this book (it was published in 1997), these tendencies have become more and more extreme. John Oliver did a fantastic episode entitled "Everest" which talks about the current state of affairs. More and more inexperienced climbers join commercial expeditions, and now there is a also a serious problem with garbage and feces in the Himalaya. The sherpas' job becomes more and more dangerous, which is not exactly widely discussed as the rich white dilettantes want to tell heroic stories about their fearless ascent to the summit while showing numerous selfies. Oliver offers an alternative which is safer for everybody: https://www.thetopofmounteverest.com

And still, I understand the urge to explore, to see and experience new environments and extreme situations, to travel to remote, beautiful, dangerous places, to try and find out how far you can go. Parts of Krakauer's book reminded me of T.C. Boyle's novel Water Music about Scottish explorer Mungo Park who was obsessed by his wish to explore West Africa - and paid a high price. In a way, Krakauer and Boyle talk about rather universal human aspirations, about the Faustian impulse to know and conquer - this disruptive impulse can be beautiful or terrible. ...more

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Jun 23, 2015 Scott rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fic, memoir

Does your dream holiday involve spending north of fifty grand to risk a fatal aneurysm, walk past the dead bodies of weaker adventurers who’ve come before you and possibly lose your fingers, toes and nose, if not your life? If so, then step right up to climb Mount Everest!

Seriously though, If you’ve ever thought you might like to climb Everest, read this book. If you still want to attempt the highest mountain in the world after finishing Into Thin Air, you are a braver person than I.

This is a ma Does your dream holiday involve spending north of fifty grand to risk a fatal aneurysm, walk past the dead bodies of weaker adventurers who’ve come before you and possibly lose your fingers, toes and nose, if not your life? If so, then step right up to climb Mount Everest!

Seriously though, If you’ve ever thought you might like to climb Everest, read this book. If you still want to attempt the highest mountain in the world after finishing Into Thin Air, you are a braver person than I.

This is a masterful account of an adventure-turned-disaster that cost the lives of eight people, and scarred (both physically and psychologically) the lucky survivors.

If you've read Joe Simpson’s Touching The Void you have some understanding of the horrors of mountaineering gone wrong. Into Thin Air similarly deals with a climbing catastrophe but with the horrifying struggle consuming an entire group of climbers instead of a lone individual.

Jon Krakauer, a seasoned mountaineer, joined a 1996 expedition to Everest with experienced guides who had reached the mountaintop on numerous occasions with previous groups.

You would think that only the best of the best attempt Everest. The toughest, fittest, most experienced mountain-crazy hardasses out there. Alas, you would be wrong. As Krakauer details, the guides that led people up the mountain often weren’t as picky as they should have been, as theirs is a business like any other, and a need for customers led to many expeditions shepherding weaker sheep up the perilous slopes of the Himalayas.

What follows is a sad tale of bad luck, bad judgement, and many, many massive screw-ups that lead to eight people dying awful deaths in the snow after getting caught in bad weather and simply running out of strength in ‘The Death Zone’ (doesn’t that sound like a fantastic holiday location? The South of France has nothing on Everest) above 8000 meters, where even the strongest person can have unpredictable and fatal reactions to the low air pressure.

Krakauer writes with clarity and humanity, giving us a window seat to how everything goes so wrong, and both the heroism and foolishness that occurs in such trying circumstances. He doesn’t shy away from his own feelings of guilt, and the way that what happened on the upper reaches of Everest has impacted his life.

Into Thin Air is a gripping, terrifying and informative story that taught me more about mountaineering and its risks than any other book I’ve read. It’s an amazing story, both well told and memorable. Read this book, and prepare to shiver in imagined cold as you walk with Krakauer through the middle of a sub-zero high-altitude disaster.

Postscript: I read this book as I headed to Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas. Krakauer discusses in detail the effect that high altitude can have on perception, memory and the ability to focus, and when I stopped at a driveable pass on my trip that reached 5600m I experienced this firsthand. Within minutes I felt nauseous, disassociated from my surroundings, and in need of some serious sleep. How anyone dares to face the perils of altitudes above six kilometres is beyond me. ...more

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Dec 11, 2014 Jonathan Ashleigh rated it really liked it

This book was well told. At times I felt oxygen deprived and often this made me unaware of tragedy. I am not a huge fan of non-fiction but this is worth a read.

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May 09, 2008 Kim rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-realz

Read within the span of 10 hours. This is not a hard read, well, if you take out the subject matter.
I picked this up because 'Into the Wild' has been out or on hold for months at the library so I thought I'd at least get a feel for Jon Krakauer's writing style.
I also have to admit that it wasn't the writing style that sold me, not that it isn't well done, but usually I'm not drawn to 'personal accounts' or non-fiction, in general, unless it is a subject that really fascinates me. I'm an escapi Read within the span of 10 hours. This is not a hard read, well, if you take out the subject matter.
I picked this up because 'Into the Wild' has been out or on hold for months at the library so I thought I'd at least get a feel for Jon Krakauer's writing style.
I also have to admit that it wasn't the writing style that sold me, not that it isn't well done, but usually I'm not drawn to 'personal accounts' or non-fiction, in general, unless it is a subject that really fascinates me. I'm an escapist and sometimes the reality of all this seeps in and rattles me in ways I'd rather not tap into.
This is very much rubbernecking. I knew that there is no happy ending to this tale, yet I was riveted and sickened the whole way through.
I wasn't drawn so much to the feat of the climb or the determination of the climbers but more to their never ending egos and downright obsession. Their fanatical need to conquer. The fact that these people spend upwards of $65,000 to subject themselves to hypoxia, frostbite, and possible cerebral edemas just makes me shake my head and say 'what the fuck?'

Krakauer states in the first chapter that once reaching the summit, a sheet of ice at 29,028 feet above seal level, he couldn't summon the energy to care. He spent less than 5 minutes on the 'roof of the world' with absolutely no spiritual awakening to speak of.
What makes people do this? What drives them to become so consumed with the thought of scaling a mountain that's killed 1 in 4 climbers since the first summit reach in 1953?

Because it's there.

Which, on its own, I can understand, sort of. But, to get there and not feel the euphoria? That's where I become lost. This passage, in particular, floored me:

"People who don't climb mountains...tend to assume that the sport is a reckless Dionysian pursuit of ever escalating thrills.... The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountains I'd been on. I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain."

The fact that the drive to reach the summit had climbers walking over corpses of their peers also is mind-numbing. To think that some of these climbers were so single-minded that they would assess a fellow climber, make the instantaneous decision that they would be nothing more than baggage and refuse to help them sends me spiraling to that survival of the fittest mentality that makes my stomach curl.
This is a freakin' Darwinian rat race.

I need to research this further, the IMAX film has been netflixed and I'm adding the K2 disaster and other stories to my reading list. What a fun summer this will be. ...more

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May 22, 2019 David Putnam rated it really liked it

Loved this book, read it years ago. The phone call to the wife from the mountain was chilling and monumentally sad.

d.

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Jul 15, 2014 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-book-challenge, reviewed-books, non-fiction, rated-books

Jon Krakauer standing on the summit of Mt. Everest.

"Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice out of my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared down into the vastness of Tibet".

You have heard the saying, "truth is stranger than fiction". In this case truth is more frightening, more compelling than fiction. This is the first hand account of the 1996 tragedy on Mt. Everest that claimed the lives of 12 mountaineers, many of the ...more

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Aug 04, 2018 Whitney Atkinson rated it really liked it

Shelves: memoir, audiobook, read-in-2018

When I picked up this book, I thought it was going to be Jon merely researching and giving account of what happened on a Mount Everest hike as a journalist, not as someone who climbed the mountain. Lo and behold, he did!! Reason number #93824 why I could never be a journalist--it requires such menial tasks as, oh i don't know, CLIMBING MOUNT EVEREST??!?!?!?!

That aside, this book captured me. I know very little about hiking Everest other than the documentary on Netflix, so this gave a good overv ...more

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Jun 11, 2019 Chelsea (chelseadolling reads) rated it liked it · review of another edition

I honestly feel weird rating this because it is a personal account of a very tragic event, but this really didn't do much for me. It wasn't a bad book, but it definitely wasn't for me.

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Dec 22, 2017 Jill Hutchinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

I started this year with one fantastic book. Let me say that you do not have to be interested in mountain climbing to enjoy this true story of the 1996 tragedy on Mount Everest, written by one who was there. It is an amazing story and will have you still asking the question "why does man climb mountains". Someone once said "because they are there" but that really isn't the answer. I have put a quote by a famous mountaineer at the end of this review which partially explains that enigma

The author I started this year with one fantastic book. Let me say that you do not have to be interested in mountain climbing to enjoy this true story of the 1996 tragedy on Mount Everest, written by one who was there. It is an amazing story and will have you still asking the question "why does man climb mountains". Someone once said "because they are there" but that really isn't the answer. I have put a quote by a famous mountaineer at the end of this review which partially explains that enigma

The author, who is a climber, was a member of the 1996 team, headed by an expert who had attained the summit of Everest several times and was considered one of the best guides available. Included in the group were experienced Sherpas but the majority of the group had various skills in climbing which would prove to be problematic.

The guide had very strict rules about the climb and the team moved slowly upward taking two weeks to get acclimated to the diminishing oxygen in the air as they ascended. Oxygen tanks were a major piece of equipment on the climb since hypoxia was the curse of thin air and could lead to deadly complications. Several members of the team had to turn back early as they physically could not complete the upward trek and the guide set a strict "turn around" time which was the moment that all should turn back even if they were in sight of the summit.

On the last day as they neared the summit, things started going wrong, very wrong and to add even more problems a violent storm overtook them and it became "every man and woman for themselves". It was the worst situation that could happen to anyone on Everest and the results were tragic.

I could write pages on this enthralling book but my advice is....read it. You won't be sorry.

Here is the partial explanation of why Everest is such a magnet to those who climb:
There are men for whom the unattainable has a special attraction. Usually they are not experts: their ambitions and fantasies are strong enough to brush aside the doubts which more cautious men may have. Determination and faith are their strongest weapons At best such men are regarded as eccentric; at worst, mad. Everest has attracted its share of men like this.......three things they all had in common: faith in themselves, great determination, and endurance. ...more

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About Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer

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Jon Krakauer is an American writer and mountaineer, well-known for outdoor and mountain-climbing writing.

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“Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the most unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable.” — 58 likes

“But at times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind.” — 46 likes

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