Imagine having to put your life in the hands of someone you just met. In the book “Into Thin Air” written by Jon Krakauer, Jon writes about his story of the disaster that occurred on Mt. Everest the day of May 10, 1996. On this expedition, Jon’s life was put in the the hands of Rob Hall, his expedition leader, a day before he started his ascent to the summit. Paying thousands of dollars to Hall, Jon relied on Hall to make the right decisions on Everest to keep him safe. While this was the case in the end for Jon, it wasn’t the same for five of his fellow climbers. Jon and his fellow climbers paid Hall a large amount of money in exchange for their safety that they did not receive. Hall was responsible for the deaths on Mt. Everest. Before the expedition even began, Jon and the other climbers were warned of the dangers of …show more content…
However, Hall ensured that the possibility of death was unlikely and everyone would be safe under his watch. This put more pressure onto Hall, as he now had to live up to his own words. Jon writes,“But trust in one’s partners is a luxury denied in those who sign on as clients on a guided ascent; one must put one’s faith in the guide instead” (Krakauer 38). The key to success in climbing is to be comfortable with the people you are climbing with, as sometimes it can be a case of life or death; as it was on May 10, 1996. Over the next few weeks, Rob Hall’s clients had grown to trust him and his decisions. Had Hall stuck to his original plans before summiting Everest, then everyone may have still been alive today. Instead, his sympathy got in the way and lead him to become lenient with his strict decisions. Something as small as staying back a few minutes resulted in the death of six climbers; including Hall himself. It wasn’t just the trust the campers gave to Hall that