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Overview: Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

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Striving for a goal is essential for anyone to get anywhere, but certain goals can’t be forgotten. The book Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, describes the necessary skill to climb a mountain. This past summer, my dad decided he would do a triathlon soon. Just like the Everest climbers, his goal could not be achieved without practice. He started swimming laps at the YMCA and found numerous bike paths to train on. My dad, mom, and I all started riding our bikes and running together. I have always liked running outside. Ever since my sisters did cross country and for the two years I did in middle school, running through a forest trail has been entertaining to me. I tried track and field, but the circular path that confined us always bored me. People …show more content…

The events that occurred on Everest during the famous 1996 expedition are recollected by Jon Krakauer through his memories and multiple interviews. Throughout his research, Krakauer was able to piece together everything that transpired during the deadly voyage. The book starts on the top of the world, Krakauer has just reached the peak of Everest and he is prepared to start back down. After the first chapter, Jon Krakauer starts to backtrack. He begins giving descriptions at the beginning of the expedition before they even got onto the mountain, details about every person who will be on the mountain. 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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Krakauer begins the book in the middle of the story where he has reached the top of Mt. Everest. He is cold, wet, and facing many medical issues including lack of oxygen and separated ribs from his journey to the top. Then he

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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.

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513 Words | 3 Pages

In the long run, Krakauer concludes that complete arrogance is in part to blame for the tragedy that takes place on Everest. Hall "bragged on more than one occasion that he could get almost any reasonably fit person to the summit. " Their arrogance also caused their clients to lower their guard and not fully appreciate the risks of the expedition. Overall, Krakauer taught many different themes within the novel that everyone should

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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

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986 Words | 4 Pages

He is also the narrator. He has to battle his way back down the mountain side of the antagonist, Mt. Everest. The whole trip on Mt. Everest was a huge conflict, but mostly on the descent down. Jon Krakauer has to figure out a way to survive and make it back down alive. The mountain is not forgiving, and there is no easy path on the way down the mountain side.

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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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500 Words | 2 Pages

In 1996 a total of 12 people died trying to reach the summit of Mt.Everest. Making it the second deadliest year on Mt. Everest. Into Thin Air is a book about Jon Krakauer, who is writing an article in an adventure magazine called Outside about Mt Everest in 1996. This book takes him through one of his most dangerous adventures yet. On this dangerous adventure he tells us the struggles he endured, and the unstable living conditions.

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1008 Words | 5 Pages

The reality of the journey to the summit is, however, the opposite and frequently ends in tragedy. The 1997 expedition to Mount Everest ended as the most disastrous of any other, resulting in nineteen fatalities and physical and emotional trauma to those fortunate enough to survive. As Krakauer comes closer to the summit of the mountain he reflects and says: “The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace”

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There are people in life who crave thrill and adventure; who feel their life is missing something. Some people choose to climb Everest to fulfill this. Desperate to summit, to experience a view beyond words, people risk their lives to get a sneak peek at the top of the world. Although Everest is the world’s highest mountain, it is also the world’s highest open grave. In Jon Krakauer 's Into Thin Air, eight climbers lose their lives; the most dead in one year.

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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.

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626 Words | 3 Pages

What if Jon Krakauer would have died and not have written the book into thin air, would someone else have written a similar book? Jon Krakauer's journey to the top began when he was hired to write a story about commercialism about Mount Everest and decided to climb the mountain. Which was his biggest mistake as it now leaves him with survivor's guilt, but also allowed him to tell a story of the events that occurred on the mountain. All of the clients weren't ready for the events as even as they started to get higher in altitude, their body’s couldn't adjust to the high altitude, tired easily, lost weight, and moved slowly.

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2320 Words | 10 Pages

Through a first person point of view, Jon Krakauer takes the reader through every single point of his journey, and even discuss previous writings and accounts of former climbers or people who have had opinions on it. In the novel, the reader learns that Krakauer is climbing a part of the Adventure Consultant, which was a program that was designed to make it easier for climbers to adjust to the conditions of climbing Mount Everest. When they are climbing however, all the climbers have trouble breathing and keeping on weight, but they assume it is just the normal change in aptitude. As they continue on, One man dies from not being able to breath, and onward from that moment, more deaths occur. They were not allowed to turn around until they reached the summit point, so when they did everything began going wrong.

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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.

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1787 Words | 8 Pages

Nobody suspected that by the end of that long day, every minute would matter” (Krakauer 9). The reason that is a cliffhanger is because after finishing chapter one on the top of Everest, chapter two is written about 1852, when the first expeditions of Everest are occurring. Another cliffhanger that Krakauer puts in Into Thin Air is that after he finally describes the emotional events that occurred on May 10th and 11th, he writes a whole chapter about what is happening on the other side of the mountain. Krakauer chose to write that chapter to calm the readers down from the emotional rollercoaster he just put them onto. In addition to cliffhangers, Krakauer uses foreshadowing.

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272 Words | 2 Pages

As they climb, Jon notices that the other clients of his team are struggling by the cause that they are inexperienced, also not familiar with the altitudes of Mount Everest. As they reached the South Summit of Mount Everest, he sees a storm that is forming near the mountain range.” - a blanket of clouds now hid Pumori, Ama Dablam,

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