Along with Joe Simpson's 'Touching the void', it's a gripping book about disasters on mountains. I was once officially consumed by books about mountaineering and climbing. Part of the fascination is wondering what possesses people to do it. Read 'em. You will not regret it. ( )

I read Into Thin Air in one sitting, staying up all night to finish it; Krakauer is just a captivating writer. I have a hard time understanding how people come away from this book with the impression that Krakauer is self-satisfied, judgmental, or even pleased with his own actions.

Part of what makes the reading so compelling is how well Krakauer conveys the state of near-total physical and mental depletion in which he was operating, not just after the disaster but well before it--particularly the mental fog that is unavoidable in conditions of such low oxygen. This communicates not only his own debilitation but also an understanding of what impossible circumstances everyone involved was working under, and of how easy it would be (and was) for anyone to make seemingly minor mistakes that could (and did) accumulate and lead to disastrous consequences. This makes it hard for me to see a judgmental or self-satisfied attitude in his account. As well, the psychological toll the disaster took on him, particularly the survivor's guilt, is apparent throughout the entire account; in some respects, like his initial confusion about Andy Harris's disappearance and death, he seems in fact unreasonably hard on himself. ( )

Mountaineer and best selling author Jon Krakauer is sent by Outside magazine to join an expedition to Everest and barely leaves with his life. A combination of bad weather, bad luck, and poor judgment ends in a disaster that leaves 12 people dead. It’s a work of reportage that reads like a novel.For years Everest has been open to commercial expeditions that charge a handsome fee to guide people 30, 000 feet to the summit. Mountaineers have been divided on this – some claim that it disrespects the mountain and cheapens the experience, while others see it as a legitimate business opportunity that opens the mountain to a wider adventure seeking public. Does the commercialization have anything to do with the disaster of 1996? Krakauer does not explicitly address this issue, but it’s a sub-text that runs throughout the story. Many of the clients that participated on the various expeditions of that season were not experienced mountaineers and that was certainly a factor. One woman in particular stands out: Sandy Pitman. She , leaving him too fatigued to attend to other duties that might have mitigated the tragic events that followed. Pittman symbolizes the pursuit of Everest for all the wrong reasons. Her vainglory led her there and her high profile gave her special treatment, because of the publicity and money she could generate. Krakeur’s presence also played a role in this. Did the presence of a reporter lead expedition leaders to take risks that they shouldn’t have? This question, like so many others will remain unanswered. Perhaps the biggest, most important question is whether people should attempt to climb the mountain at all. Is climbing Everest an expression of human achievement or an example of hubristic folly? Perhaps there are frontiers that we are not meant to explore, areas where the human footprint becomes a sacrilege against god and nature.

▾Book descriptions ( )

This review is to help people understand the differences between the paperback version of Mr. Krakauer's book and the 'illustrated' version. (So much has been written about the content, that it hardly seems worth putting down my own paltry thoughts about Jon's Everest adventure.)

The first difference, of course, is the size. The 'illustrated' version is 9.1 x 8.8 inches, and is about 1 inch thick. Hardback, the book weighs 3.5 pounds, which is to say it's pretty hefty.

The cover, unfortunately, is not all that attractive. It's white with a fabric texture, and adorning it is one of Randy Rackliff's images. Unlike the other abstracts by this artist that appear in black and white at the beginning of the chapters in all the different versions of this book, the cover art is in blue and is raised. Personally, I think something else should have been chosen, or else the image should have been much larger.

Buts lets look inside. Between the covers there are some wonderful photos. Some are small pictures of various climbers -- old and new. And some are panoramic vistas. None are in color.

I have some thoughts about that. First, given the number of photos, it just might have been prohibitively expensive to have color. And then again, given the fact that snow is white and mountains are gray and brown, it might have taken away from the beauty and staggeringly menacing rockfaces, to have guys in dayglo orange outfits standing in the foreground and snagging the attention of your eyes. In any case, what you should take away from this part of the review is that there is no color.

So how many black and white photos are there? Generally speaking there is at least, on average, one per page. There are pictures of men such as Andrew Irvin and Edward Norton, and there are pictures such as that of the southface of Annapoura. In addition there are some maps and charts.

As far as I was able to ascertain all text-content was the same.

All in all, I thought the pictures were important to my appreciation of the story that was told. It's one thing to imagine what such and such camp looked like, and another to see it. If I was to own a copy of this book for my home library, then this is the version I'd be likely to buy. (I compared library versions). As far as a gift, I don't know. While it's a great book and the pictures are great, the cover is just unimpressive. So I suppose it would depend on the friend.

Pam T~

Lawson, J. (1997). Into thin air (Book Review). School Library Journal, 43, 150. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Article Citation database.

Scott, A. (1997). Into thin air (Book Review). The New York Times Book Review, 102, 11-12. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Article Citation database.

 

Very interesting story of mountain climber and his climb to the top of Mount Everest. ( )

In 1996, sponsored by Outside magazine, Krakauer went on a guided climb of Mount Everest, reaching the summit on a day that turned out to be one of the most deadly in Everest's history. A sudden storm trapped members of several expeditions near the summit, and eight people died. Krakauer's chronicle of these events is harrowing and gripping. ( )

Drammatico reportage sulla tragica spedizione sull'Everest del 1996. Sviscera bene le motivazioni che spingono gli alpinisti agli estremu. ( )

A classic for the arm chair adventurer, outdoors enthusiast, or true adventurer.

The story has its detractors. In particular, other who end up in Krakauer's version of the story. My grumbling is that the author comes off sounding very proud of himself and finds few of his own errors. ( )

Krakauer was a member of a commercial guided expedition to Mount Everest in 1996. He was assigned to write about the commericalization of Everest, but his expedition and another were caught poorly prepared in the summit trek, and 8 perished, including the two organizers of the expeditions. The narrative was superbly fastpaced, and gripping, especially in the description of the horrible endurance required when the oxygen is low above 25000 feet. The mountain is a regular tourist trap, with used supplemental oxygen cylinders accumulating on the summit, and horrible hygenic conditions on the way up. It did nothing to encourage me to take up rock climbing, let alone high althitude climbing ( )

This is a harrowing true story of several expeditions to climb Mount Everest in 1996. Through bad luck (a massive storm hit unexpectedly) and bad judgment (among other things, preset turn around times were ignored), a number of climbers were stranded and both deaths and serious injuries ensued.

It's a well-written tale, in which Krakauer conveys both the details of the ascent process and the tremendous difficulties--not just the technical climbing aspects, although those play a part, but, more crucially, the physical and mental toll that the altitude and lack of oxygen take on the climbers. Even with a gradual process in which climbers take weeks at increasing altitudes to become acclimated, the higher altitudes make them sluggish and mentally foggy, as well as more vulnerable to a number of serious illnesses and frostbite.

I don't pretend to understand what makes people want to do dangerous, physically miserable pursuits like this, but I do get that it's an obsession for some--and a burden for their families, left alone for months to wonder if their adventurous loved one will return alive. This book will stay with me for a long time.

Into Thin Air is the story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster as told by a reporter who was part of the expedition. Over the course of the climb down the side of Everest, twelve people lost their lives. Into Thin Air details exactly how they died to the best of Krakauer’s ability.
The book is, obviously, written in such a way that one knows from the beginning that specific people are going to die. That knowledge is what inspires the morbid fascination that kept me glued to this book for hours on end. Mountaineering, admittedly, is not something I am particularly interested in, and at times I did find it difficult to understand why on Earth anyone would want to climb up a mountain when there was obviously so much danger involved. I suppose that its thrill is similar to that of gambling, only the people climbing are betting not only money but also their lives on whether or not the mountain will kill them.
I mentioned a feeling of fascination coupled with morbidity, and this book did inspire a certain amount of anxiety, if not fear, in me, for I was reading about men- and women- who are now dead. Who staked everything on their ability to survive, on their guides’ ability to make decisions when thin air makes rational thinking all but impossible. Who gambled and lost. And their companions had to leave them behind.
One of the more frightening parts of this book is how Krakauer describes the death of each of these people in depth, whether they died of disease or froze in the snow. I did find that the descriptions that frightened me the most were those of Ngawang Topche and Yasuko Namba. Ngawang fell ill early on in the book but his death was no small matter. He had contracted HAPE, a dangerous high-altitude disease, which was made more dangerous by some pre-existing pulmonary condition. He was shuttled down the mountain and brought to the doctors as quickly as possible, but he still died after struggling for days. Yasuko made it to the top of Everest, but was trapped with the others when that fateful storm blew in. She and another member were separated from the group and lost their way trying to find the camp. When searchers found them they were both alive, both breathing, but it was evident that Yasuko had gone beyond the point where the doctors could save her. By some miracle those two had survived in the cold, and the expedition had to leave her behind anyway. If they hadn’t, there would have been more death.
Walking hand in hand with that reality is Everest, spreading its message that mountains are not things to be trifled with, no matter how skilled the climber. In the end, the mountain is the one that decides whether climbers live or die. The smallest storm on top of that mountain can kill a man easily. The truth is , as it says in the book, that getting to the top of a mountain is easy. It’s getting down that matters.
To tell the truth, just thinking about that freaks me out. To be on top of a mountain, where the air is thin enough that bottled oxygen is necessary, and there’s no promise of returning to the ground, and the wind slices through layers of cloth like a knife. I know that I’d never be able to climb up that high, no matter how euphoric the experience may be. For one thing, I’m afraid of heights, and for another I just don’t like the chances. I’m not very fond of gambling. ( )

Had I been 20 years younger when I read this book I think I might have had the courage to work towards climbing Everest myself. Even though this book is wrought with tragedy, the determination and drive to reach the goal is phenomenal. Once someone has achieved something that incredible it has to leave them with the knowledge that there is nothing they can't do if they try hard enough. ( )

When my son was assigned to read this book the summer before starting high school, our family decided to read it as well. I felt as if I were climbing Mt. Everest right along with Krakauer, who as a writer for Outside magazine, was asked to join an expedition in May of 1996 and write an article about it. upon returning, he realized the article did not do the expedition justice and decided to put this life-changing experience into a book. Krakauer begins each chapter with the location of the expedition, time, date and the elevation, along with a quotation. This true story will move you, as it did me.

This tragic true story touches on many events; too numerous to mention here. I found the arrogance, and cluelessness of some of the individuals inolved in the ascent to be appalling. The professional climbers should have known better. The commercialization of Everest is another tragedy in and of itself. At the end of the book I was amazed that anyone survived. At the same time, I wonder how hard it must have been for the author to sort through all the misery, and suffering, and write such a riveting book. My heart goes out to the families that were forever changed by these experiences. ( )

Climbing Everest had to be an obsession, a pretty strong one. Even with all the difficulties and pain the climbers went through, they kept pressing on. I wondered what they would do once they reached the top. There wasn't much description of what they saw from this pinnacle. In fact once Krakauer made it, he merely 'tagged the base' and turned around. Krakauer did cover the feelings well .. he lets you into his head; describing his impressions of the other climbers and the Sherpas. When the storm blew up and snuffed the life from several struggling to descend. I thought was it worth it? I guess I'll never understand why anyone would want to suffer like that with frostbite and hypoxia. I would have wanted to stay on top longer, or had more to say about being up there. All-in-all this book had me hooked, as far as wondering what happened to those who lost their lives. Knowing that several didn't make it back alive, had me feeling anixous for them and the moves they made. It was like knowing something bad would happen to them, but unable to stop them before it was too late. I feel sympathy for Krakauer, and the survior's guilt he endures. ( )

This was a pretty good book, but it is not one that I would let my child read. It was a little confusing with all the character names to memorize, but the themes from the book are very important. This book talks about the struggle of men to achieve their goals, and is really a good classic novel. Overall, this was a really good book. ( )

This is a book I have a pattern with: purchase, read, giveaway, rinse, repeat. I think this is the fourth or fifth copy I've had & the fourth or fifth time I've read it. I love this book. Krakauer's a great writer & the story is tragic on a grand scale.

I have very clear memories of when these awful events happened. I was working a graphic design job in a warehouse that looked out over a parking lot by Lake Union in Seattle. I had a little radio & would listen to NPR all day & that's where I heard the coverage of the people lost on the mountain & the attempts to rescue them & then the death toll. I remember it raining a lot during that time, but it was Seattle so it rained a lot all of the time. A friend of mine had a rock climbing housemate who knew Scott Fischer, one of the guides who died. The whole thing was heartbreaking & seemed so unnecessary.

Jon Krakauer was on Everest with Rob Hall's group as a journalist for Outside Magazine - to summit Everest & to write about the relatively new practice of commercial guided climbs on Everest. Like all of his books, Krakauer includes a fair amount of history - of mountain climbing, adventuring, & of Everest. He was one of the few people from the group that climbed that day that walked away alive & this book is definitely a survivor's meditation. There is a fair amount of controversy surrounding all of this - who did what when, who should've done what but didn't, who wanted to save his own ass more, who should never have been on the mountain. At the end of the day, though, I love this book - a tragedy that happens inch-by-inch as one decision after another adds up to disaster. ( )

I could not put this book down and finished it during Easter break in 3 days. The author was able to describe personalities and facts in a most fascinating plot, all the while making clear that this had really happened. This is one on the most captivating non-fiction books that I know. I would recommend it to everyone, hiking, climbing or not. (Beate) ( )

Rating: A

So, I had planned to read this book for last year's Modern Classics challenge, but never got around to it. Then, after my sister incessantly berated me, I picked it up. It started kind of slow, as did Into the Wild (one of Krakauer's other books), but it got really good.

Krakauer has this way of telling a story where you already go in knowing what happens; seriously, he tells you in the preface notes that a bunch of people died in a horrible storm, but you still keep reading.

Why?

Probably because in the "tedious" set-up of the book, he has laid out the meticulous nature of these guides (whom you know end up dying in the end) and you ask yourself, "What went wrong?"

The only problem is that you can't really read this book if you're looking for answers--there aren't any. Sometimes accidents happen and the people who were in the position to anticipate and/or prevent the "accidents" are all dead, so we can't know their motivations or thought processes. Also, the people who are still alive sometimes have conflicting accounts of their own experiences.

None the less, the book does open up discussions for interesting topics such as, "If there's a point on the globe that's so high that it's nearly impossible to reach it without compressed air or the assistance of hard-working, and perhaps under-paid, sherpas, should we be going there?" Granted, there are a handful of people who have summited Everest without using canned air or the assistance of sherpas (one guy in 1996 did it... he's an all-star in my book), and maybe this mountain (a sacred part of Himalayan culture) should be left alone except for the truly exceptional people. Who knows? That's not necessarily for me to answer, but I've definitely been thinking on this for a couple of days now.

This book was so fantastic that I'd recommend for everyone I know to read it (with the up-front disclaimer that it's worth plugging through the "tedious" part so you can really get it in the end). Also, several other people who were on the trip have written their own accounts (my sister read Beck Weather's book, Left for Dead, and I'm intrigued beyond belief to read this, also Mike Groom, a guide from Scott Fisher's team who lived wrote a version based on his recollection).

All in all, this is a dynamite, fantastic, should be read by everyone in the entire world kind of book. (I only marked it down from A+ to an A because I would have preferred the "tedious" part to be a little less tedious, but I'm not entirely sure that's possible.) ( )

On New Year's Eve night, when I was visiting relatives with my kids, I picked up this book because it was on a table and there was nothing else to do. The reader is immediately transported to Nepal, and is looking up at the top of Everest. This book captures all the characters, and is so intense that I was immediately engaged with the story. Three hours later everyone in the house, including my kids, had put themselves to bed and I was still up reading. The next morning, as soon as the local bookstore opened, I was there buying my own copy because we had to leave and I wanted the six hour drive home to provide me with the time to read it.

This is an amazing story. The whole time I was reading it, I couldn't believe that people actually attempt to climb this mountain, and then wondered why they wanted to climb it. Each person in the book had their reasons, but I still wonder what part of their brain cells give them the impression that this is a good idea.

Don't get me wrong -- I respect these folks like no others, and admire their ability to follow a dream no matter what. ( )

Good account of Everest disaster in '96. ( )

For the record, John Krakauer has the dullest reading voice I've heard in a while. I'm surprised they didn't get an actor to read this book, but as it is Krakauer's personal life-story maybe they thought it'd be best if it was read by him. I have to give him props for one thing, though - when he knows an accent is beyond him, he might emphasize a word or two to let the reader know that the speaker is an Aussie or Nepalese, but he doesn't try to blow the accent up into a ridiculous stereotype.

This is an incredibly sad story. The deaths of eight climbers during the May 10th, 1996 summit attempt on Mt. Everest could have been avoided in so many ways...the first of which would be not climbing the idiot mountain in the first place. Seriously, people. Thin atmosphere, slippery ice, 7000 foot drops and hurricane-gale freezing storms? Only an idiot would put himself in such a situation to begin with.
Maybe I can never understand the people who would climb Mt. Everest or other extreme, dangerous sports because I would never put myself in such a situation. Because of this, I feel sorry for the people who die - no, scratch that. I feel sorry for the families they leave behind, the wives and husbands and children and parents. The climber must know what they're getting into when they force their bodies beyond human endurance to - to what, exactly? Take a piss off the summit of the highest point on earth? - and, well, if you put yourself in a suicidal situation then can anyone really be surprised when you die?
I do find myself agreeing with Krakauer's assessment that perhaps bottled oxygen should no longer be allowed, as it makes it much easier for unqualified climbers to attempt to topple Everest while littering the beautiful mountain with discarded cannisters. Lord knows the place is already full of unsightly debris with at least 150 dead bodies to be found (usually not buried, either.)

Into Thin Air is a fascinating account of Jon's successful summit attempt and the tragedy of the deaths of eight climbers. Excellent narrative, strong story. Jon's survivor guilt and confusion over the actions of himself and his teammates (choosing to abandon Yasuko Namba, for example, even though she was still alive, so that she died alone in the dark and cold) makes the account gripping and raw. As much as I disagree with the philosophy of climbers to tackle such deadly places, I admit it is fascinating to hear about their daring and determination. ( )

A page turner. ( )