Positively Negative Some people dream of fame, success, or fortune; others dream of Everest. These people dream of summiting Everest, to reach to top of the world. One of the most famous Everest expeditions is the summit attempt on May 10, 1996. What once was a dream became a nightmare for clients and guides alike on the mountain. One of the reasons that day was unlike the rest was because self-reliance and drive were all common among the climbers. The novel, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer displays these traits with the climbers. Although most Everest climbers have these traits, on May 10, 1996 these traits played both positive and negative roles in the events that occurred on the mountain. To begin, self- reliance had positive and negative effects on the mountain. Self- reliance is …show more content…
Beck Weathers displays drive many times in the book. For example, Beck was extremely fatigued and frost bitten, despite this Beck continued down the mountain with little help. Athans claims, “At times we had to help him pretty substantially…but really, he moved surprisingly well.” Beck has an urge to succeed that he defeated all odds and was short roped to the camp. However, drive can also be negative. This is shown with Doug Hansen, a man whose attempt at Everest was powered by drive. Doug Hansen had climbed Everest previously, but had to turn around just shy of the summit. Jon Krakauer said, “Exactly one year earlier, Hall had turned Hansen around on the South Summit at 2:30 p.m. and to be denied so close to the top was crushing disappointment to Hansen.” Rob Hall did not want to turn Hansen around again when he was so close. As said in the book “Hansen would not get there until after 4:00 p.m.” almost two hours past the turnaround time. This is a negative because if the turnaround time was not disregarded then maybe Doug and Rob would not have been stuck on the top during the