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Tragedy In Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

521 Words3 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. 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. Perhaps Hall …show more content…

He was an extremely skilled climber, having summated with no supplemental oxygen before. This may have led to his downfall, as he felt with his experience he didn’t need to follow directions given by others. Fischer told Boukreev on that fateful day to hold up the rear as the group began to descend from the summit. For reasons no one knows, Boukreev went ahead of the group, abandoning his guide duties. Had there been another guide, another perspective as to which direction was the correct one, some of these lives may not have been lost. Some may say Boukreev made his wrongs right, though, by going back into the storm to guide the freezing clients back to safety. However, Yasuko Namba could not be saved and that must count for

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