Into Thin Air
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4.5 • 154 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray.
“A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism.”—People
A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of the Last 30 Years
A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that “suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down.” He was wrong.
In Into Thin Air, Krakauer takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death.
This updated trade paperback edition includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory. In a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
What set out to be a magazine article on top-of-the-line tours that promise safe ascents of Mt. Everest to amateur climbers has become a gripping story of a 1996 expedition gone awry and of the ensuing disaster that killed two top guides, a sherpa and several clients. "Climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain," writes Krakauer (Into the Wild). "And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering... most of us were probably seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace." High-altitude climbers are an eccentric breed--Olympian idealists, dreamers, consummate sportsmen, egomaniacs and thrill-seekers. Excerpts from the writings of several of the best-known of them, including Sir Edmund Hillary, kick off Krakauer's intense reports on each leg of the ill-fated expedition. His own descriptions of the splendid landscape are exhilarating. Survival on Mt. Everest in the "Dead Zone" above 25,000 feet demands incredible self-reliance, responsible guides, supplemental oxygen and ideal weather conditions. The margin of error is nil and marketplace priorities can lead to disaster; and so Krakauer criticizes the commercialization of mountaineering. But while his reports of guides' bad judgments are disturbing, they evoke in him and in the reader more compassion than wrath, for, in the Dead Zone, experts lose their wits nearly as easily as novices. The intensity of the tragedy is haunting, and Krakauer's graphic writing drives it home: one survivor's face "was hideously swollen; splotches of deep, ink-black frostbite covered his nose and cheeks." On the sacred mountain Sagarmatha, the Nepalese name for Everest, the frozen corpses of fallen climbers spot the windswept routes; they will never be buried, but in this superb adventure tale they have found a fitting monument. Author tour.
Customer Reviews
Thrilling Read
I deeply enjoyed this - my first Krakauer read. He enthralled me in all things Everest. I have to say, I’m surprised he denounced the movie adaptation to such a degree. Of course even the book would leave out important nuances only felt by those who were present for the event, the movie seemed to stick quite closely to the information provided. It did paint Jon himself in a bit of a silly light, and took some liberties definitely: everything with Beck’s wife, the total elimination of the sherpas that Jon repeatedly stressed were of the utmost importance to every expedition, the fake conversation between Boukreev and Jon about going into the storm to try and help people... I do really wish they’d included the sherpas more, and some of the history of the mountain, how it’s affected by its location in Nepal and China, and especially the damaging impacts of high-altitude on their thought process. So many “poor” decisions were made on the mountain, but they weren’t made in lucid thought... the movie really failed to drive that home.
I look forward to reading more by Krakauer but I can only imagine that this book is his most vivid, as it all seems like the singular most vivid experience of his life. Spooky, captivating, inspiring in parts, but ultimately leaves you feeling a little confounded... even with so many step-by-step accounts, one has to wonder... how did it all go so bad?
My belated condolences to all victims and their families, and to the survivors still living under the weight of such heavy memories.
Loved this
An engrossing narrative that keeps readers interested while learning new things. Heartbreakingly beautiful.
insightful
I watched Everest the movie and I had to read the book. There is nothing profound about my review, I enjoyed the book. P.s. I am going on my first scramble this summer in the Canadian Rockies. Wish me luck