Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

"Into Thin Air" describes a suffering that results from the ambition to achieve an extreme challenge. While the mountain climbers mentioned in the account of Jon Krakauer's book had this special ambition, they lacked a sense of realism which ultimately ended in the demise during their journey to summit the top of Mount Everest. "Into Thin Air" conveys the dangers of perseverance through the guides' greed for the profit they are earning, the climbers' perilous drive to reach the summit under no matter what circumstance, and the effect of millionaire Dick Bass's achievement of climbing to the top of Mount Everest that left other amateur climbers with the idea that the goal of reaching the summit was easily attainable. The guides' perseverance

Rob Hall, the most experienced and achieved guide on the expedition promises to lead an abundance of amateur climbers to the summit. Though he knows Everest more than anyone else, he makes decisions that lead the reader to think his main motive of the trip was the high profit he was earning. Hall has the audacity to say, "with so many incompetent people on the mountain […] it's pretty unlikely that [they'll] get through this season without something bad happening up high". However, he resumes to allow struggling climbers to attempt to reach the summit rather than directing them to turn around. His most confounding decision is letting Doug Hansen attempt to reach the summit, even when it becomes too late to safely descend. Years prior to the 1996 Everest expedition, Hall failed to lead Hansen to the summit. Krakauer tries to justify Hall's decision as he states, "It doesn't seem far-fetched to speculate that because Hall had talked Hansen into coming back to Everest, it would have been especially hard for him to deny Hansen the summit a second time." Krakauer leaves the reader with this thought to depict Hall as a more devoted character than what his actions depict him

During the preparation and trip leading up to the summit, many climbers became aware of the dangerous surroundings and circumstances that were inevitable to avoid while hiking Mount Everest. One of the climbers Doug Hansen would have not been able to afford the expedition had it not been for the elementary students of his town that sold t-shirts to go towards the high price of the trip. He could not bare to disappoint the children that sponsored him and fail to reach the summit a second time in his life. It was simply unacceptable to give up and turn around to Hansen. This kind of pressure to excel made Hansen push beyond his physical limits. Hansen portrays perseverance in its most agonizing way and reveals the dangers that come along with great determination. In his account, Krakauer uses pathos to describe the traumatizing story of Doug Hansen's death to connect the reader with the intensity of his experience. Mountain climber Scott Fisher possessed the same ambition which convinced him not to turn around during his pain and misery. Fisher was a fearless leader as he lead his first clients ever up Everest in an unconventional way. His unique way was admirable, but also seems to be responsible of the disaster that strikes. Fisher is left exhausted from all the pain and aching he undergoes after having to hike back and forth for clients. He also ignores a chronic liver illness as he only has one