Discussion Questions On Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

Part I: Précis

Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, is an adventure novel that takes place near and in the surrounding areas of Mount Everest in the spring of 1996. The main characters of this book are two profoundly different “people”: Jon Krakauer, the protagonist, and the beautiful, yet notoriously deadly Mount Everest, the antagonist. Conflict arises as each member of the climbing groups set foot on Everest; this would be the ultimate test of endurance and self-preservation as every one of them knows how unpredictable the mountain can become. Jon Krakauer, an avid mountaineer and reporter, receives a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to climb Mount Everest and write about his experiences as he ascends to the top of the world. As the elated

Explain the different ways that Jon Krakauer faces situation where he must go “into thin air”, both literally and figuratively.

2. After Krakauer arrives back to the States, he recollects memories of the descent from the summit and starts blaming himself for the tragedies that occurred, “My actions- or failure to act- played a direct role in the death of Andy Harris. And while Yasuko Namba lay dying on the South Col, I was a mere 350 yards away, huddled inside a tent, oblivious to her struggle, concerned only with my own safety”(283).

Is this guilt Krakauer feels a consequence of his negligence or only for surviving against all odds?

3. How did the Sherpa’s belief in the goddess of the sky, Sagarmatha, play a significant role in how actions were done on the mountain? Is there any way to better prepare oneself for a disaster that is inevitable in an expedition like

Before arriving at Base Camp, Krakauer was not the most experienced climber, only venturing at barely the altitude of Base Camp, but still possesed the dream he had when he was younger to summit Everest. He writes, “None of the climbs I’d done in the past, moreover, had taken me to even moderately high altitude. Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet- not even as high as Everest Base Camp” (28). Following the unspeakable events that happened on his group’s descent, Krakauer’s naivety to death has been shattered with his words, “Mortality had remained a conveniently hypothetical concept, an idea to ponder in the aspect. Sooner or later the divestiture of such a privileged innocence was inevitable, but when it finally happened the shock was magnified by the sheer superfluity of the carnage…” (283). Even months after his trip to the roof of the world, Krakauer is emotionally scarred and expresses it through this statement, “Not even in sleep is there respite: images from the climb and its aftermath continues to permeate my dreams” (296). As a result of the disaster on the mountain that spring, the author himself, Krakauer, has seen a side of nature never confronted by him before and realizes how precious a human life actually