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Into Thin Air Essay

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Into Thin Air is a gripping and haunting account of the tragic events that unfolded during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, written by Jon Krakauer. In this book, Krakauer, who is a mountaineering journalist, vividly recounts his harrowing experience as a member of one of the most infamous expeditions. Krakauer provides a gripping story that not only details the events of the disaster but also explores the dangers of mountaineering, the motivations of those who attempt it, and the impact which experiences can have on individuals. The need for a confident and helpful leader is one of the most sought-after things since it is important to the climber’s survival. Although a good leader might be hard to find when people are presented with a difficult …show more content…

“Launching into a long story involving a French tourist, a Buddhist monk, and a particularly shaggy delivered the punch line with an impish squint, paused a beat for effect, then threw back in a booming, contagious laugh, unable to contain his delight in his own yarn. I liked him immediately.” Hall shows that he is a great leader with lots of confidence. He helps everyone laugh could laugh with them and calm down before such an extreme situation. A real leader will show overconfidence and laugh in the face of adversity. “He told me several times that he’d returned to Everest in 1996 largely as a result of Hall’s advocacy—he said Rob had called him from New Zealand “a dozen times” urging him to give it another shot—and this time Doug was absolutely determined to bag the top.”Hall had a lot of confidence in his abilities and it is really profound throughout the story, making his client who failed last time feel more included in the team. He wanted to make sure that Doug didn’t have to feel that crushing defeat again. Rob cared about Doug like he was a close friend or family member, and that shows throughout the climb to the …show more content…

“Over the previous month, Rob had lectured us repeatedly about the importance of having a predetermined turn-around time on our summit day—in our case, it would probably be 1:00 P.M., or 2:00 at the very latest—and abiding by it no matter how close we were to the top.” The team should try to go down as quickly as possible and follow the turn-around time to get down the mountain as fast as possible. He finds ways to keep climbers safe while having the climb they want, giving them enough freedom to push themselves while keeping them out of dangerous conditions. “Unsure whether there was oxygen waiting for him, Hall decided that the best course of action was to remain with Hansen and try to bring the nearly helpless client down without gas.” Even though he knew his turnaround time was set in stone and meant life or death, Hall risks it all because of how much he cares about his client both in terms of their accomplishment and their

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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.

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521 Words | 3 Pages

Hall held the lives of all his clients in his hands, and he intended to help them descend safely. He set a turn-around time to begin to descending down Everest to assure his clients had enough supplemental oxygen and stamina to continue. That turn-around time came and went, Hall never putting it into effect. There are many factors that could have contributed to Hall abandoning his fool-proof plan. Months prior, Rob Hall had convinced Doug Hansen to give Mt. Everest a second shot, as he didn’t make it to the summit last time.

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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.

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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

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1318 Words | 6 Pages

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522 Words | 3 Pages

He left the summit early, abandoning his clients. That day, many people died. They didn’t have their guide, and may have had a chance had their guide stayed with them. Another guide, Robert Hall, got himself, and a client,

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1340 Words | 6 Pages

This book takes the reader through in-depth history like first explorers at the base of the mountain and famous climbers who summit. He also writes with extreme detail about the Sherpa culture, for without their skills and adaptations, the attempt to summit would be inconceivable. But along Krakauer’s journey to Mount Everest’s peak, he adds how much more accessible the mountain has become as a result of commercialization. Into Thin Air is most known for its precise structure of the storm in the Death Zone. Although many disagree and criticize his memory of the blizzard, Krakauer recalls specific locations and struggles of the other climbers.

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1257 Words | 6 Pages

For people who don’t know anything about Everest or climbing in general, Krakauer dives into the history and technicality of climbing Everest. Only after describing every incident leading up to the summit, Krakauer begins detailing the events and mistakes during the storm that ended up killing thirteen people. The storm leaves Krakauer and many other survivors shaken, the only thing left is to see how the deaths on Everest end up affecting friends and family. There is no real ending to this book, it was only meant to purge Krakauer of the guilt and shame Everest left him with. The only resolution is for Krakauer getting as accurate of an account of the event as he could

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721 Words | 3 Pages

The book Into Thin Air written by John Krakauer is a novel written from his perspective on the 1996 Everest disaster that took place May 10th, in which he was involved. The 1996 Everest disaster included 3 climbing teams, Adventure consultants that was led by Rob Hall, Mountain Madness, which was led by Scott Fischer and the Taiwanese Expedition, led by Makalu Gau. With all three teams, there was a total of 33 climbers. 19 climbers get trapped at the death zone (26,247 feet) due to a sudden storm. One group was stuck on the South Col, another group ended up getting stuck near the Hillary Step, and the other group was stuck near the south summit.

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131 Words | 1 Pages

It was 1996 when Jon Krakauer took a job from the magazine company, Outside, to report on mountain climbing expedition tours which had been raising speculation. Krakauer had a passion for climbing ever since a young age, and he especially had always wanted to climb Everest. He had climbed before, but not altitudes as intense as what he was about to take on. Upon his journey, he found the altitude to be more than challenging. His oxygen intake began decreasing substancially and he could feel himself fading away.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

This would later caused Rob’s reputation to be put at stake. In addition to this it would later have an effect on some of the decisions Rob Hall would make at a high altitude where you are not at your best state of thinking. Krauker states in his book Into Thin Air, “The Outside piece was as accurate as I could make it under the circumstances, but my deadline had been unforgiving, the sequence of events had been frustratingly complex, and the memory of the survivors had been badly disorientated by exhaustion, oxygen depletion, and shock.” This further explains to us how simple decisions like words used to describe an event was affected by the conditions on Everest, it also gives us a first hand comparison of how Krauker would normally write without being under these

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1249 Words | 5 Pages

Doug worked two different jobs to afford to go on the trip to Everest, and was making his second attempt to reach the summit of Everest. Doug came back to Everest to try and reach the summit for the first time. Because Doug failed to reach the summit on his first attempt, I argue that Doug Hansen’s primary motivation

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607 Words | 3 Pages

None of these people were forced to climb the mountain, especially Hansen climbing the mountain his second time. There was a specific rule that the turnaround time was at 2 pm, no matter where you are on the mountain you go back to camp, that was the rule. Hansen should have started to turn back to camp, but since he wasn 't able to reach the summit his first time he didn 't want to go back down again. So he kept on going past the turnaround time. This leads Hansen to make a serious mistake pushing for the summit despite it being way later than the agreed upon turnaround time.

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1014 Words | 5 Pages

Rob died while serving others, and putting their needs before his own. As can be seen throughout Into Thin Air, the only reason Rob went back up to the summit was for Doug. When the storm hit making it difficult for the two of them to descend, Krakauer notes that “Hall, however, wouldn’t consider going down without Hansen” (Krakauer 24). At this point, Rob’s downfall may have been inevitable, but at least he was committed to staying with his client and friend. Although Doug’s ambition could have caused Rob’s death, he never even considered the possibility of leaving him on that mountain.

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692 Words | 3 Pages

This is because, in the end, the two guides were not careful or safe, each for their own reasons. “Likewise since he had failed to get anybody to the top in 1995, it would have been bad for Hall’s business if he failed again in 1996-- especially if Fisher succeeded(285).” This is Hall’s reason for pushing forward, the fact that it would be bad for his business if he didn’t keep on pushing forward, especially since he “was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world(37).” Fisher's reason was that “Fisher had never guided Everest before 1996. From a business standpoint, there was a lot of pressure on him to be successful(285).”

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