Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

A book written to inform the world of the terrible events that happened on May 10, 1996 near the summit of Mount Everest to the author, Jon Krakauer, and the other climbing customers of the Mount Everest climbing services. Jon Krakauer writes Into Thin Air to explain how much the people involved in the climbing disaster at Mount Everest suffered during their time lost, looking for shelter, or freezing to death. In the novel, Krakauer was hired by Outside Magazine to write an article about the commercialism on Mount Everest. Krakauer at the time was a somewhat experienced climber but never climbed anything comparable to Mount Everest. He was the most qualified for the job so he arrived with excitement and a “ready to go” attitude which was quickly lost after the first week. He was traveling with the climbing service called Adventure Consultants, which was guided by Rob Hall. He was promised a speedy acclimatization process so that he would not suffer from altitude sickness and a quick climb to the summit. When Krakauer arrives at Base Camp he is horrified by the terrible conditions but tries to be somewhat optimistic. After Base Camp, he must wait for the rest of the group to acclimatize to the altitude and then they will all proceed to Camp One until they reach Camp Four and then finally the summit. Adventure Consultants was not the only climbing service there, at the time, there were many other services from around the world that all helped each other out. The other climbing service that was going at the pace of Krakauer’s group was Scott Fischer’s group. They all made a push to the summit on May 10, 1996 and a turn around time was set for two o’clock by Rob Hall the leader of the Adventure Consultants climbing service. Of course the time was not enforced and some climbers did not turn back until four o’clock when the weather rapidly changed from a sunny day to a strong blizzard. Krakauer had reached the summit earlier than most climbers and had reached Camp Four by the time the weather was getting bitter. Since most of Krakauer’s teammates were caught in the blizzard the twelve that died that day both got lost and froze to death, or they ran out of oxygen and froze or died of asphyxiation. May 10, 1996 was the day that the worst climbing accident had occurred in the entire world. Krakauer felt that he had an obligation to let the people know what went on throughout his trip in detail and why such a fatal mistake was made.
Into Thin Air was an interesting and very informative book on the sport of climbing. I enjoyed reading it and learning what most climbers go through when they climb up to extremely high elevations. It explains every detail to the point that I can picture it in my mind. I understood what the climbers endured whether it was excitement and joy for achieving something or if it was pain and agony that they suffered. Either way the book explains everything to an extent that allowed me to feel like I was there with them and see everything they did on that dreadful trip.
Some questions that may arise when people read this novel is why does Krakauer explain everything so much but without the explanations the book would be difficult to understand, and the reader would not be able to get as much out of the story as is possible the way it is written now. Another question that I asked myself was why Krakauer named the book Into Thin Air, and my belief is that it has a double meaning. Not only does it show that at the top of Mount Everest the air is so thin that supplemental oxygen is needed to survive but it can also mean that the climbers were actually arriving to their demise and their life was shortening with every second they were out in the blizzard. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the sport of climbing, or a person who enjoys personal accounts of an exciting and adventurous trip to Mount Everest.