Comparing Into Thin Air And The Climb By Jon Krakauer

In the books Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev, both Krakauer and Boukreev had different opinions about the actions that Boukreev took during the 1996 Everest expedition. Krakauer claimed that Boukreev should have not descended the mountain before the clients, should have used supplemental oxygen, was not well dressed, and did not interview key people for his book; however, Boukreev had strong reasoning behind all the criticism that Krakauer mentions, proving Krakauer wrong. Krakauer believed that Boukreev’s action of descending the mountain after summiting and not waiting for clients was “questionable behavior for a guide” (Boukreev 213). Knowing this information, would make someone think that Boukreev was unfit

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.

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.

"Into Thin Air" describes a suffering that results from the ambition to achieve an extreme challenge. While the mountain climbers mentioned in the account of Jon Krakauer's book had this special ambition, they lacked a sense of realism which ultimately ended in the demise during their journey to summit the top of Mount Everest. " Into Thin Air" conveys the dangers of perseverance through the guides' greed for the profit they are earning, the climbers' perilous drive to reach the summit under no matter what circumstance, and the effect of millionaire Dick Bass's achievement of climbing to the top of Mount Everest that left other amateur climbers with the idea that the goal of reaching the summit was easily attainable. The guides' perseverance

Six months since the tragedy, most climbers have moved past the grieving. On the contrary, Krakauer states, “Perhaps after more time has passed I, too, will be able to recognize some greater good that’s resulted from so much suffering, but right now I can’t” (296). Although Krakauer was considered one of the “lucky ones” as he did not suffer severe injuries, he still felt survivor’s guilt. Witnessing so many hardships tampered his mind. In addition, he states, “...no more than two or three hours have gone by in which Everest hasn’t monopolized my thought” (296).

These are some struggles he has faced the day he decided to climb Mount Everest. Those topics I mentioned previously are significant because everyone has choices whether they want to go out with friends or stay in to do their homework to be prepared for school the following day or in Krakauer’s case spend weeks climbing a mountain or not.

Before arriving at Base Camp, Krakauer was not the most experienced climber, only venturing at barely the altitude of Base Camp, but still possesed the dream he had when he was younger to summit Everest. He writes, “None of the climbs I’d done in the past, moreover, had taken me to even moderately high altitude. Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet- not even as high as Everest Base Camp” (28). Following the unspeakable events that happened on his group’s descent, Krakauer’s naivety to death has been shattered with his words, “Mortality had remained a conveniently hypothetical concept, an idea to ponder in the aspect. Sooner or later the divestiture of such a privileged innocence was inevitable, but when it finally happened the shock was magnified by the sheer superfluity of the carnage…”

Mountains Life changing journeys are not the easiest to come by. Both John Krakauer and Erik Weihenmayer achieved such feats by overcoming mental and emotional boundaries. Determined to reach their goals, they defied not only their personal expectations, but they also defied the expectations of others. Krakauer was trying to change his life for the better, and Weihenmayer, being blind, wanted to accomplish the impossible. These men climbed and conquered massive mountains in their lives both physically and mentally.

When Krakauer was nine years old Unsoeld, a family friend and an incredibly successful mountaineer, shared tales of his adventures causing Jon to have a deep fascination with mountaineering. This started his lifelong love affair with Everest. Jon’s dream of Everest was fulfilled when Krakauer was chosen to summit, with the Rob Hall's expedition, in order to write an article for Outside magazine. During that trip to the summit Jon Krakauer faced a horrible storm that cost many lives.

Krakauer would climb a mountain and write an article about his trip for the magazine. Being a mountain climber, he was always attracted to Everest, the pinnacle of climbing. He talked to the magazine editor to see if the magazine would pay for him to go to Everest if he wrote an article on it. Initially, the magazine said they would only cover a certain amount of the trip, but eventually covered it all.

On the other hand, as the only survivor of a plane crash in episode two of Bull “The Woman in 8D” the pilot is primarily blamed for all of the deaths. During the crash, Captain Taylor Mathison is blamed for crashing the plane she is piloting when all passengers are killed and Mathison loses her memory due to head trauma, causing the case to be extremely more difficult to settle the case. Similarly, in Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, he depicts his experience climbing Mount Everest and surviving the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, where eight climbers died and several others were stranded by storms. Being a relatively new climber, many denounced Krakauer for his criticisms of some of the professionals as well as the fact that he survived when several others did not, despite having more

You are looking up at the top of the mountain that you have been climbing for weeks. Do you take the short dangerous route and expedite the time it takes to get to the top or the longer safe route and lengthen the time it takes to get to the top? Since Erik Weihenmayer and John Krakauer have both climbed burdensome mountains, they had to make decisions like these all the time. John Krakauer, who is the author of the memoir “The Devil’s Thumb”, successfully climbed Devil’s Thumb with no disabilities, but on the other hand, Erik Weihenmayer, who is the author of “Everest”, successfully climbed Mount Everest blind. Krakauer wrote his story more than a dozen years later and shared it with the reader by flashbacks and a more negative tone.

Mason Moore Mrs. Vermillion Advanced Placement Language and Composition March 29, 2017 Ascent to Death Jon Krakauer’s “Into Thin Air” is an amazing book that describes the treacherous journey from the bottom to the top of Mt. Everest. Krakauer joins a large team of climbers led by Rob Hall to the top of the summit. They endure many hardships not just from the terrain but from the sheer effects of the high altitude on the body. This ultimately caused the down fall of many skilled and unskilled climbers on May Tenth.

The non-fiction book, Into Thin Air, is about a personal account on Mount Everest, the highest mountain on our earth, by Jon Krakauer. Krakauer wrote an article about the commercialization of the mountain and as well as its manpower. Commercialization had impacted the way people look at climbing mountains like Mount Everest and some are positive and negative to some people. People will never understand the importance of the mountain until it costs them their lives. Today peoples dreams come true for more people than it has when talking about Mount Everest, but have little to no understanding when they are finally face to face with it.

Imagine having to put your life in the hands of someone you just met. In the book “Into Thin Air” written by Jon Krakauer, Jon writes about his story of the disaster that occurred on Mt. Everest the day of May 10, 1996. On this expedition, Jon’s life was put in the the hands of Rob Hall, his expedition leader, a day before he started his ascent to the summit. Paying thousands of dollars to Hall, Jon relied on Hall to make the right decisions on Everest to keep him safe. While this was the case in the end for Jon, it wasn’t the same for five of his fellow climbers.