A Review and Response to Into Thin Air

  Into Thin Air grips you from the start and keeps you interested throughout the entire 288 pages.  Krakauer writes in such a way that tells a factual story but also invests you in the characters and their fate.  Each of the climbers we are introduced to have their own personal motives, interests, and flaws.  Climbing Mount Everest is an inherently illogical act, one that places intangible accomplishment before self-preservation.  This draws the most superficial individuals to the mountain, who want only to stand atop the tallest mountain in the world and then never step on another summit in their entire life.

  I found Krakauer's illustration of these people to be one of the strengths of this book.  A large part of why so many people died at 28,000 feet in 1996 was because of the selfishness and greed of those who would stop at nothing to summit Everest.  Bruce Herrod, the last of the 12 who perished on Everest during those few days, died because of this relentless desire to reach summit.  He was 3 hours past the designated turnaround time and still continued to push for summit.  His team abandoned him and did not tell Herrod to turn around even after they passed him on their way down.  Herrod reached summit and disappeared into the night, presumed dead today.  Krakauer gives us a look at the humanity behind climbing Everest, and it allows the reader to connect with those on the mountain.  Personally, I could see myself refusing to turn around so close to the summit after spending the better part of seven weeks committed to reaching the top.

  Another part of the book I could connect with was the immense guilt and regret Krakauer was burdened with after surviving the 1996 Everest disaster.  Obviously I have never been exposed to an event as traumatic as what Krakauer experienced on Everest, but his description of his grieving process makes it very relate-able on a personal level.  With only 1 of the 5 other people that made summit with Krakauer surviving the descent, it comes as no surprise to me that he has some amount of survivor's guilt.  I can connect with Krakauer because of the natural human response to such a disaster, and he portrays that well in Into Thin Air

  The epilogue of the book serves as a recognition of all the criticism he and his teammates received for their part in the 1996 disaster.  Krakauer was torn apart by both the media and members of various victim's family-members.  They claimed he could have helped more and simply did not do enough to save those in need.  Krakauer recognizes this as legitimate criticism and does not try to argue against his accusers.  I too held some doubts about whether or not Krakauer truly did all he could to stop deaths on that mountain.  I also grew to look at some parts of Into Thin Air with cynicism, for it was all the word of one man and he had the ability to include or exclude whatever he wanted.  Krakauer realizes this in his epilogue, and connects with the reader in such a way that demonstrates that he knows he isn't perfect.  Krakauer did what he thought was logical and righteous at Camp Four and the Summit, and I think that is morally acceptable.

  The intended audience of Into Thin Air is a wide range of people.  I would consider the audience to be those personally affected by the disaster, the media, anyone considering climbing Everest, and the public at large.  Krakauer's book serves as a personal account for what happened at 28,000 feet, it is not a source of justification for himself or others.  I believe Krakauer wanted this book to be out there so that his side of the story would be available for all to see.  I recommend Into Thin Air wholeheartedly because it is a thrilling nonfiction, that goes into depth with the complex social issues surrounding the climbing of Everest.

Somewhat Unique Punctuation In "Into Thin Air"

  Krakauer writes in a very literal and to the point manner.  Despite the blunt writing style, Krakauer has a message he is trying to get across in every chapter.  Krakauer rarely outwardly states his opinion in his writing.  Rather, he lets the reader see the necessary information in a neutral manner.  This passage shows his style well.

The weather deteriorated as the afternoon wore on.  Lopsang Jangbu, Fischer's sirdar, showed up bearing a back-wrenching eighty-pound load, some thirty pounds of which consisted of a satellite telephone and its peripheral hardware: Sandy Pittman was intending to file Internet dispatches from 26,000 feet.

  It is clear that Krakauer holds some disdain for this Sandy Pittman, a wealthy socialite/mountaineer, who found it necessary to access the internet while on the tallest mountain in the world.  Not only that, but she also had her Sherpa drag up the weight of her nonessential equipment.  The use of punctuation in this passage gives us this impression that Krakauer has towards Pittman, without directly stating it.  The colon inserted after the primary sentence highlights the absurdity of what Pittman is having Jangbu do.

  I enjoy Krakauer's to-the-point method of writing, as it doesn't tell the reader what they are supposed to believe-it only suggests it.  This creates the illusion of an unbiased book, but subtlety inserts the author's belief's into the passage.  It is clever, and breaks the trend of clear bias that we find in so many other sources.

 

Blog Post 5 Clever Title

  Throughout Into Thin Air, Krakauer focuses on the other people on the mountain while he was climbing Everest.  There is a certain personality that is drawn to Everest.  It requires a certain amount of overconfidence and recklessness to even attempt a mountain such as Everest.  The characters that are on Everest with Krakauer have a wide variety of personalities.  Some are experienced and humble climbers, while others are less so.
 
  While Krakauer was on the mountain, a South African team was attempting to summit Everest for the first time ever.  This team was led by Ian Woodall, a 39 year-old ex-militant with a somewhat limited amount of actual climbing experience.  He was given a personal blessing by South African President Nelson Mandela, for this expedition.  There were high hopes for this team, with their entire nation cheering for their success.  Unfortunately, Woodall proved to be a letdown.  He had the authority to pick and choose members of his team.  To create a feeling of diversity in the team, Woodall invited some females onto to the team.  Little did they know, Woodall had no intention of actually bringing them up the mountain.  He did not include any of the females on the permit to climb Everest.  On top of this, Woodall proved to be an arrogant and self-absorbed leader.  The teams of Camp Two met together to decide what date they would summit.  Weather forecasts predicted May 10 to be the best day in the near future.  All the other groups came to agree on what day each of their teams would summit.  There would be serious danger in having multiple groups reaching the top of the mountain at the same time.  Woodall decided to disobey the other teams and go for the summit on May 10, completely disregarding the safety everyone else high up on the mountain.  Many of the climbers on Woodall's team argued against their leader, but Woodall could not be convinced to change his views.

  In my life, I have encountered few (if any) people as arrogant as Ian Woodall.  However, I have met some individuals who are extremely set in their ways.  I work for a family of Greek immigrants who own a pizza restaurant in Shelburne Falls.  The oldest of the family, the father and mother, have worked practically their entire life, starting from a very young age.  To them, work is everything.  Working for somebody like this-who also has difficulty with the English language-can be very frustrating.  Very much like Woodall, they have one way they want to do things, and you cannot stray from that direction-even if your method ends with the same result.

Krakauer and Quote Sandwiches

  Krakauer uses many rhetorical devices to add credibility to his argument.  This includes embedding quotes into his writing to allow the words of other people to strengthen his point.  The following passage is a good example of how Krakauer utilizes these "quote sandwiches" throughout Into Thin Air.

And now Pete Schoening was being led up Everest by Fischer and his two guides, Neal Beidleman and Anatoli Boukreev.  When I asked Beidleman, a powerful climber from Colorado, how it felt to be guiding a client of Schoening's stature, he quickly corrected me with a self-deprecating laugh:  "Somebody like me doesn't 'guide' Pete Schoening anywhere.  I just consider it a great honor to be on the same team as him."  Schoening had signed on with Fischer's Mountain Madness group not because he needed a guide to lead him up the peak but to avoid the mammoth hassle of arranging for a permit, oxygen, tentage, provisions, Sherpa support, and other logistical details. (p.92)

  

There are three parts of a quote sandwich, with the actual quote itself being the figurative "meat".  The two pieces of anecdote precluding and after the quote make up the surrounding "bread" of the sandwich.  By enclosing a quote inside the actual passage, Krakauer can build up an effective argument for himself.  

  The first two sentences set the stage for the point Krakauer is trying to make.  Pete Schoening is part of an expedition with a set of very experienced climbers, including Scott Fischer, who we already know to be a professional climber.  Neal Beidleman is revealed to be the guide for this team, a position reserved for those who have extensive knowledge on mountain climbing.  By association, we can venture to guess that anyone on this team already has had years of mountain climbing experience.

  

  The actual quote that follows the introductory sentences injects the passage with what Krakauer wants the reader to feel.  The quote from Beidleman shows us that even the guides on this expedition feel inferior to Schoening's climbing ability.  A direct quote from another source-who has considerable expertise on the subject, gives Krakauer's argument a great deal of strength.  

  To conclude the paragraph, Krakauer interjects with his final point on the subject.  Schoening is not with this team because he needs the assistance in climbing Everest, he is there because he simply wants to avoid the other logistical problems that comes with going without a group.  We as readers of the passage, know clearly what Krakauer is trying to tell us, and likely believe him.       

Rhetoric in "Into Thin Air" (Or Lack Thereof)

  Throughout Into Thin Air, Krakauer uses a very literal and "to the point" style of writing.  Rhetorical techniques such as complex imagery, anaphora, or metaphor, are for the most part, absent in this book.  Rather, Krakauer utilizes an abundance of information and experiences to add ethos to his writing.  Krakauer's time spent mountain-climbing allows him to provide personal insight into the cultural background of the sport.  This makes us as a reader respect Krakauer as an author, and believe that what he tells us is somewhat reliable.

  In a book like Into Thin Air, it is extremely important for the author to create a certain air of credibility in his writing, so we as an audience can buy into what he is saying.  A very large part of Krakauer's story focuses on how climbing Everest is different from almost any other mountain-climbing experience.  This is not only because of the sheer height of Everest, but also because of its popularity and commercialization.  Hundreds of practically inexperienced but wealthy climbers have come to the mountain to essentially buy their way up on the backs of Sherpas and guides such as Rob Hall.
"I soon learned that on Everest not even the rope-the quintessential climber's accoutrement-was to be utilized in the time-honored manner.  Ordinarily, one climber is tied to one or two partners with a 150-foot length of rope, making each person directly responsible for the life of others; roping up in this fashion is a serious and very intimate act. In the Icefall, though, expediency dictated that each of us climb independently, without being physically connected to one another in any way."
  This passage gives a great deal of credibility to Krakauer as a writer as well as a mountain-climber.  The author draws a comparison between a climbing strategy used in a normal icefall, and the one used in the Khumbu Icefall on Everest.  In a situation like this with a group of well-trained climbers, the group would link up through a rope, to hold themselves responsible for the safety of not only their own life, but as well their partner's.  However, Krakauer teaches us that on Everest these novices cannot be trusted with the lives of another climber, and so they must create a "freeway" of sorts for the group to scale the mountain.

  There is a somewhat noticeable argument that Krakauer is trying to make throughout Into Thin Air.  Krakauer leads us to believe that the act of climbing Everest the way he and many others did (and still do), is not wholesome.  Man has taken the mountain and exploited it for a select few, so that they can achieve the intangible feeling of being on top of the highest point of the world.

A Publishable Synopsis

  In Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer spends the third and fourth chapters developing the characters of his Everest climbing team.  We meet Rob Hall, the head guide of this expedition, a physically lanky but responsible leader.  Krakauer provides some background information about Hall, and tells of the tragedy surrounding his past.

  Born in New Zealand, Rob Hall relentlessly pursued his dream of conquering Mount Everest from an early age.  Hall eventually became so engrossed in the sport that he became seen as a professional in the eyes of many.  After successfully climbing to the summit of Everest, Hall began to look into sponsorship opportunities.  With his partner Gary Ball, Rob Hall (rhyming names is completely coincidental) started a challenge to climb the seven tallest mountains on each of the seven continents, in seven months.  They finish this test with only hours to spare, and gain recognition worldwide as accomplished climbers.  Hall and Ball eventually come to the realization that continuing to attempt these dangerous challenges for sponsorship opportunities is only going to end in disaster.  Both of them retire, and decide to start a business to help guide those who want to make it to the peak of Everest, but may not have the proper training to do so unaided.  Their guiding agency is frowned upon by much of the climbing community and is seen as an attempt to "commercialize" the sport.  Peter Hillary, a former climbing partner of Krakauer's and practically a "mountain climbing demi-god",  publicly calls out Hall's business as a shameful practice.  However, it did not end here for Hall.  Five months after the Hillary outcry, Ball dies in Rob Hall's arms from an altitude-related illness on top of the world's sixth tallest mountain.

  Krakauer puts a great deal of time into developing Rob Hall's character during these two chapters, as he is literally the guiding force behind this ill-fated journey.  I came to understand Hall as an old legend, who simply sputtered out of the spotlight.  I believe understanding this part of who Hall is, will be integral to a large part of the story.  

Krakauering Down on Mount Everest

"Attempting to climb Everest is an intrinsically irrational act-a triumph of desire over sensibility."

-Jon Krakauer, Seattle, November 1996.

Early afternoon, May 10, 1996, Jon Krakauer reached the summit of the highest mountain on Earth.  In the descent that followed, five of his companions lost their lives on that mountain.

In his book, Into Thin Air, Krakauer writes about his harrowing experience on that mountain and the people that he made the journey with.  I chose to read this book for a variety of reasons.  I have always held a strong distaste for the practically inexperienced climbers, who use their own personal wealth to climb Everest on the reliance of a Sherpa (native Himalayan people) to guide them up.  What used to be a solitary and relatively underground sport, became a heavily commercialized activity after the development of mountaineering.  

Jon Krakauer is a well recognized best-selling author, known for his extensive time spent in the outdoors, and the books he has written about his experiences.  He is the author of four non-fiction books, Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman.

The transformation and actual act of climbing Everest peaked my curiosity.  I had heard of Into Thin Air before, with much praise of his work.  On top of that, last year I read Into the Wild-an earlier book by Krakauer, and I enjoyed his writing thoroughly.  Considering these factors, I decided that this book would be well worth my time.