Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray.
"A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." --PEOPLE 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. By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."
"A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." --PEOPLE 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. By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."
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Community Reviews
This is my second Krakauer book, the other being "Into the Wild" which I also enjoyed. The thing that I've come to enjoy about Krakauer is his writing style and his matter-of-fact outlook on his topic.
I won't pretend to know how to deal with the situation that the expeditions on Everest had to deal with that May. I've never done anything that strenuous or risk taking in my entire life. I've hiked a little but I've never been mountaineering. I also have no dreams of ever climbing Everest so to try and criticize the actions (or lack thereof) of those who were struggling to survive the night of May 10, 1996 is not my place, especially 19 years after the fact. I do think that Jon wrote it perfectly when he stated "Walter Mittys with Everest dreams need to bear in mind that when things go wrong up in the Death Zone - and sooner or later they do - the strongest guides in the world may be powerless to save a client's life; indeed...the strongest guides in the world are sometimes powerless to save even their own lives."
I know there are other works written about this experience, and I may seek them out after a time. But as I did when I finished "Into the Wild", I will most likely spend a good deal of time mourning the lives that were lost, even if I didn't personally know the individuals involved. I feel Jon has done a brilliant job of portraying their personalities and their characters (as he did with Chris McCandless) and I feel that, through his work, I do know them a little and mourn the lives they didn't get to finish.
I highly recommend this book.
This and other reviews can also be found on my blog: backporchreview.weebly.com
I won't pretend to know how to deal with the situation that the expeditions on Everest had to deal with that May. I've never done anything that strenuous or risk taking in my entire life. I've hiked a little but I've never been mountaineering. I also have no dreams of ever climbing Everest so to try and criticize the actions (or lack thereof) of those who were struggling to survive the night of May 10, 1996 is not my place, especially 19 years after the fact. I do think that Jon wrote it perfectly when he stated "Walter Mittys with Everest dreams need to bear in mind that when things go wrong up in the Death Zone - and sooner or later they do - the strongest guides in the world may be powerless to save a client's life; indeed...the strongest guides in the world are sometimes powerless to save even their own lives."
I know there are other works written about this experience, and I may seek them out after a time. But as I did when I finished "Into the Wild", I will most likely spend a good deal of time mourning the lives that were lost, even if I didn't personally know the individuals involved. I feel Jon has done a brilliant job of portraying their personalities and their characters (as he did with Chris McCandless) and I feel that, through his work, I do know them a little and mourn the lives they didn't get to finish.
I highly recommend this book.
This and other reviews can also be found on my blog: backporchreview.weebly.com
Riveting! I have no personal interest in mountain climbing (though I like hiking- the flatter the better) and certainly, I have no interest in climbing Mount Everest, but this book kept me turning the pages as quickly as I could.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it left me wanting a more literary or philosophical examination of life and death. My first thought was it's crazy to climb Mt. Everest. But my second thought was - well, none of us are making it off this planet alive. Maybe the issue with climbing Mt. Everest is more an issue of age and family situation. But there was no real exploration of any more meaningful exploration of the choice to scale the mountain though there was a fair bit of discussion about the duty the people on the mountain did or didn't owe to each other, though most of that had a somewhat indirect quality about it.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it left me wanting a more literary or philosophical examination of life and death. My first thought was it's crazy to climb Mt. Everest. But my second thought was - well, none of us are making it off this planet alive. Maybe the issue with climbing Mt. Everest is more an issue of age and family situation. But there was no real exploration of any more meaningful exploration of the choice to scale the mountain though there was a fair bit of discussion about the duty the people on the mountain did or didn't owe to each other, though most of that had a somewhat indirect quality about it.
I devoured this book. I really enjoy Krakauer's writing as it kept me engaged and wanting to know more. This reminded me at times of James Nestor's "Deep" which I read about 2 years ago; maybe I just really love nature-esque memoir/accounts.
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