ipl-logo

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

Show More
Related
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

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer Into Thin Air is a non-fiction and adventure book that details the disaster that occurred in 1996 at Mount Everest, and it started as a magazine article. The book is a personal account of the author Jon Krakauer, a professional writer and mountaineering hobbyist, who was sent on the Everest expedition by Outside Magazine with the task of writing an article about his experience. In my opinion, people should read Into Thin Air because it is a story about survival, and it consists of valuable lessons about, perseverance, determination, and character.

Read More
986 Words | 4 Pages

79) (Simile). "The wind kicked up huge swirling waves of powder snow that washed down the mountain like breaking surf, plastering my clothing with frost." (pg. 125) (Simile).These smilies really compare, and show the reader the harsh conditions the climbers faced everyday. The main paradox in the book is that experience and preparation ultimately means nothing on Mt. Everest. In particular, no one thought that such a tragedy could occur on an expedition guided by Rob Hall, the most celebrated Everest guide dog of the decade.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

Boukreev was talking to scott fischer about him climbing on his own and that is a very unsmart decision and he was granted that choice and he didnt but still it wasn't very smart. Boukreev later asked to climb with no oxygen and scott said your crazy he said to be a professional I need to do it my way and so he tried but jon thought he was just a horrible guide for being a professional climber and guide for the biggest mountain on earth which makes a very good point even though he says less than boukreev jon has better

Read More
249 Words | 1 Pages

In Boukreev response to Krakauer and his summary of May 10, 1996 and the events that took place on that day. He asserts that Krakauer and his accusations are false about that day and that Boukreev simply left to save himself. Boukreev is writing in his piece that Krakauer was simply not in the loop of what he was doing and that his accusations were simply simple mistakes and what comes later is the correct information. With every point that Krakauer makes Boukreev has his own. For example, Boukreev writes “Also, Mr. Krakauer raised a question about my climbing without oxygen and suggested that perhaps my effectiveness was compromised by that decision.”

Read More
864 Words | 4 Pages

Into Thin Air, written by Jon Krakauer, is a book about Krakauer’s experience on Mount Everest. Jon always loved mountain climbing, and it was his dream to climb Mount Everest. Naturally, when Outside Magazine hired him to climb the mountain and write an article, he accepted. Krakauer decided to go on the expedition with Adventure Consultants. Adventure Consultants, although very expensive, had a great reputation as being very safe.

Read More
626 Words | 3 Pages

I have learned that success is to be measured not much by the position that one has reached in the live as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed. Everyone has faced obstacles and most of the time some people overcome them. Thee obstacles that people face have to overcome, live with them, or even just go around them. Three characters that face and overcome obstacles in imaginary literature or real life are Jon Krakauer, Odysseus, and me. Jon Krakauer had obstacles to face when he climbed down Mt.Everest in the excerpt of “Into Thin Air”.

Read More
448 Words | 2 Pages

xperience? Gathering of people plays a role in the text because in Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer many issues are caused by the numerous different teams of climbers during the climb and descent of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest, because of this multiple people are injured and die because of it. Jon was originally hired by Outside Magazine To report on Mt. Everest being commercialized, but throughout the story his experience changes as more problems are caused by gathering of people in text. He joins a commercial expedition called the Adventure Consultants led by Rob Hall and is on his way to Mt. Everest.

Read More
877 Words | 4 Pages

Jon had always dreamed about climbing Mount Everest, but many consequences came along with what his dream was. Jon’s second reason for going up Mount Everest was that a magazine company, Outsider Magazine, gave him the opportunity to write an article about his journey. To climb Mount Everest it costs 35,000 dollars, which Jon thought was way too much money for such a high risk. He was not going to take the job, but the company offered to pay all 35,000 dollars for him to write the article. The article for Outsider Magazine helped him further write the book, Into Thin Air.

Read More
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

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

In 1996, 29,029 feet above sea level, a expedition to climb Earth's largest mountain went horribly wrong. In the autobiography, Into Thin Air, eight climbers lost their lives trying to descend from the top of the world making this the second worse fatality rate ever to occur on Mount Everest. To be able to successively climb Mount Everest, clients must be intellectually competent, which is one of the pillars of the Grad at Grad. Being Intellectually Competent means that students go above and beyond the expectation both academically and in every day experiences, while taking the knowledge students learn in class and present it into the community. Jon Krakauer, the author, shows in his expedition multiple cases of him growing to be Intellectually

Read More
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.

Read More
612 Words | 3 Pages

Keep in mind he was a “professional” and was supposed to guide the group. Even after being seven people down the rest of the group continued to climb up the mountain. They did not turn back until the weather got worse, on their way down they were caught in a complete blizzard where visibility was almost completely gone. At this point they made the decision to make a snow cave shelter. They managed to survive the night and the next morning a student and professional mountaineer hiked for 16 hours until they found help.

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

It is unfortunate what happened to the people that died when descending from the summit. However, no one is responsible for those deaths, it was an unexpected storm that killed them. Ultimately a person is not responsible for another person 's action. I believe once a person is near death self-preservation will

Read More
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).”

Read More

More about Tragedy In Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

Related Topics

Open Document