ipl-logo

Commentary On Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

483 Words2 Pages

This term I read the book, Into Thin Air. This has always been a book that I was interested in but, until now, I never got a chance to read it. Mountaineering and climbing stories have always fascinated me with the heroism and all the strength it takes. Jon Krakauer is the author and he is also the main character. The book is about his account of the 1996 disaster on Mount Everest and it is non-fiction. The main thing that I took away from this book was to never climb Everest. Like seriously, you’ll die. Another thing I took away was the amazing heroism and strength that these climbers possessed. Before they reached the summit, the weather was very brutal and it would’ve kept them from reaching the top of the world, but then the weather cleared. …show more content…

A massive storm blew in, dropping the temperature to about one hundred below zero. Despite the cold, a lot of the climbers went on and that is just amazing to me. They had to chip away ice from their oxygen tanks, they had snow blasting them in the face at upwards of eighty miles per hour, and they had ice freezing their eyes shut. It was a miracle that anyone made it down at all. It had to have taken serious strength and determination to get down that mountain in those conditions. Sadly, many died including his guide, Rob Hall, on Everest that day. This book was really good and I would recommend it to anyone who is interesting in climbing stories, or anyone who really just wants a good story of strength and willpower. The book starts out slow for the first couple chapters, but if you can push past that, it is well worth it. I was also extremely impressed with the way this book was written. It was written in a such a way that I felt like I was on Everest experiencing it along with Krakauer. The level of detail and story telling that he put into his book is astonishing. He describes things so well, the good and the

Show More
Related
814 Words | 4 Pages

As the team ascends to camp one they face there first route or area known as Icefall. It’s given this name due too a large glacier that moves everyday, it also forces the climbers to use dangerous roping techniques that cause them to ascend parts of Icefall independently and not roped to other climbers for support. Once at the top of camp one, Krakauer tries to help one of the sherpa move some equipment up quickly realizes that all physical labor is a heavy and difficult burden on the body. Krakauer later summits to camp two and finds that his body is even weaker the higher up he is. At camp three the winds are very high and temperatures are below zero at night.

Read More
521 Words | 3 Pages

Into Thin Air Novelist, Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, recounts the catastrophe that happened on Mount Everest, at the top of the world. There are many factors that led to the final conclusion of the tragedy on May 10, 1996. It’s impossible to know how different courses of action could have changed the outcome of those desperate hours, but there were things done that made the rescue more problematic. Rob Hall’s actions directly affected the success of the climbing expedition. Rob Hall was the head guide of Adventure Consultants, the climbing group that Jon Krakauer was assigned to.

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

Many of them are inexperienced and would undoubtedly never make it to the top without a guide. The one unifying characteristic shared by all of the climbers is that they have money—enough to shell out $65,000 a piece for their shot at the top. Krakauer spends long chapters giving his best, most educated guesses about why climbers made certain decisions, and what happened to the people who disappeared. This is an exercise that must result in major frustration, as no one can be entirely sure what took place. Many mistakes later, Krakauer manages to piece together an outline of what happened to whom and when during the climb, but the questions he struggles with in almost every situation are "why" and "how".

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

, it is important to note that the characters portrayed in this book are real people. The unique conditions and the weather of the setting forced the climbers to make choices that they could not have made in a different situation. The tough choices made by the climbers and the setting influenced the result of the story. Krakauer’s tone for the most part is respectful toward the guides and climbers, and he narrates as objectively as possible, while including his own concerns and doubts. His tone in the beginning expresses excitement and nervousness, but later turns into

Read More
986 Words | 4 Pages

79) (Simile). "The wind kicked up huge swirling waves of powder snow that washed down the mountain like breaking surf, plastering my clothing with frost." (pg. 125) (Simile).These smilies really compare, and show the reader the harsh conditions the climbers faced everyday. The main paradox in the book is that experience and preparation ultimately means nothing on Mt. Everest. In particular, no one thought that such a tragedy could occur on an expedition guided by Rob Hall, the most celebrated Everest guide dog of the decade.

Read More
1031 Words | 5 Pages

As the author writes, it comes clear to the reader of how much completing this climb means to him and how determined he is to go through with it and conquer the climb, but he also shows his excitement throughout the journey. “Wind and horizontal snow takedown our suits and covered us with a layer of ice,” one example stated by Weihenmayer that the climb was very difficult, but the team had to push through with determination. Throughout the story, Weihenmayer explains every tough situation of the climb, like this one, that he had to struggle to overcome. He continues to push through to complete the climb because of his determination and with every obstacle conquered his excitement is visible. As Weihenmayer stated, ‘“We’re on the top.

Read More
459 Words | 2 Pages

All in all, the author manages to balance out his appeal to emotion with the intense sequences of his journey up Mount Everest. Describing how sad he was when he saw his teammates buried in the snow ice cold, and also rescuing one of his teammates, only to see him die a few minutes later from severe

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

I have learned that success is to be measured not much by the position that one has reached in the live as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed. Everyone has faced obstacles and most of the time some people overcome them. Thee obstacles that people face have to overcome, live with them, or even just go around them. Three characters that face and overcome obstacles in imaginary literature or real life are Jon Krakauer, Odysseus, and me. Jon Krakauer had obstacles to face when he climbed down Mt.Everest in the excerpt of “Into Thin Air”.

Read More
931 Words | 4 Pages

The story Peak is based on a fourteen year old boy who attempts to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. After changing his life by moving to Nepal with his dad, he was climbing with the goal of being the youngest person to reach the summit and bear more attention to his dad's company. Throughout this book, a lot of person vs nature conflict is explored through the text and is

Read More
1352 Words | 6 Pages

Comparison and Contrast Essay of “Everest” and “The Devil’s Thumb” Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, has had approximately four-thousand people go through freezing temperatures, breathe thin oxygen, and risk a painful death in an attempt to ascend to its uppermost point at 29,029 feet. Erik Weihenmayer was one of the six-hundred sixty people who has successfully done so and was the first blind person to do so. John Krakauer is another one of the six hundred sixty. Krakauer also pioneered a new route for a notorious mountain in Southeast Alaska called The Devil’s Thumb. These men have both written descriptive, intense, and genuine memoirs about their experiences.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

Tom Ryan had hiked as a kid with his father, so he knew the basic wilderness rules. On top of that, there was a fee of sixty-five thousand dollars to be guided up the mountain. Due to their inexperience the climbers going up Mount Everest died. They were behind schedule and they had a certain window to get to the top. One man was on his third trip up the mountain and had never reached the summit before so he told the guide that he did not really care what happened to him, he just wanted to get to the summit.

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

In this short book review, a lot of focus will be directed into Jon Krakauer’s deliberate sacrifices to ensure that the mountaineering process becomes a success. In regard to this, Jon Krakauer takes the role of the protagonist whereby he makes very calculated moves, sacrifices and forfeitures highlighting some of the most outstanding lessons derived from the book. This is because Jon Krakauer relentlessly attempts to theorize, as objectively and painstakingly as possible mediating on what exactly happened during the mountaineering activity. Jon Krakauer essentially narrates amount of sacrifices that had to be made by the mountaineering expedition team.

Read More
1249 Words | 5 Pages

For as long as anyone can remember, people have dreamed of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. During May of 1996, an expedition set out to Nepal to attempt a climb up Mt. Everest. By the end of this expedition to the top of Everest, many climbers lost their lives due to the brutal weather. In Jon Krakauer’s novel Into Thin Air, he takes readers through the story of the expedition, and he talks about the climbers who died. Among the list of the dead was a man named Doug Hansen.

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

On assignment for Outside Magazine to report the growing commercialization on the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high altitude guide on the mountain. The book details the author's expedition up Mount Everest on May 10, 1996, which turned catastrophic when eight climbers were killed on one day by a rogue storm. Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people, including himself, to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns’ of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Krakauer, throughout the story shows the reader what it truly means to depend on someone else and to have others depending on you. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauers eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

Many things could go wrong climbing the highest mountain in the world with an elevation of 29,029 ft. 12 people died climbing Mount Everest. No is responsible for those death. The climbers had chosen to climb the mountain. In the novel it states, “Hall was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world” (Krakauer 35). This shows that a person is willing to pay to go through so much pain, risk and sickness to summit the top of the world.

Read More

More about Commentary On Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

Related Topics

Open Document