On May 10th, 1996, a mountaineering expedition turned into a disaster when an unexpected storm hit Mount Everest and eventually took twelve people’s lives along with it. While some events are agreed on the disaster, what actually happened that night and the events leading up to it are heavily debated. This debate can be seen in the books Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev where they disagree on crucial details leading up to the climb. Although Anatoli was the better climber, Jon Krakauer’s account is more credible due to his knowledge on the subject, great character, and determination to show the most honest account of the story possible. Even though Anatoli Boukreev had more knowledge and experience in mountaineering, …show more content…
Meanwhile, Boukreev had zero writing experience before The Climb and even needed the help of DeWalt to co write with him. Unlike Krakauer, DeWalt had never climbed before and was nowhere near Everest during the 1996 disaster. Henceforth, the fact that DeWalt had zero climbing experience and subpar writing abilities, infinitely discredits the facts and debate presented by The Climb. Additionally, while Boukreev was a world renowned climber, Krakauer certainly did have some climbing experience including “a number of fairly extreme ice climbs in Canada and Colorado” (Krakauer 28). Moreover, Krakauer also climbed Mooses Tooth, “pulled off a solo ascent of the Devils Thumb”, and ascended Cerro Torre which was once “thought to be the world’s hardest mountain” before attempting Everest (Krakauer 27-28). For this reason, his knowledge in the subject of climbing is extraordinary and could be seen through his language throughout the book where he uses jargon such as crampons, rig safety tethers, and harnesses. Another reason that Krakauer is more credible is because of Boukreev’s poor and …show more content…
While climbing, Krakauer would often find himself atop the daily destination before his peers and would generously assist the sherpas on their tasks even though it wasn’t his duty. In contrast, Boukreev would not offer help when arriving before his clients and would often maltreat his sherpas. As a result, the sherpas strongly disliked Anatoli for the duration of the climb and would later “blame him for many of the deaths” that occured at the disaster (nickvanderleek.com). Boukreev’s true character was shown during summit day where in spite of the expectation that he should be helping his clients, he ascended before everyone and, “indeed, by 5:00 p.m., while his teammates were still struggling down through the clouds… Boukreev was resting and drinking tea” (Krakauer 218). Additionally, “Boukreev told Fischer, ‘I am going down with Martin [Adams]’” (Krakauer 211); but “[he] did not stick with Adams as he claimed he would and instead raced down without him” (nickvanderleek.com). As a result, Adams would struggle to make down the mountains and survive the night. Furthermore, albeit Krakauer was not able to help Beck down and instead left him for a more experienced guide as of Mike Groom, “the only role [Boukreev] played was stepping over [Beck’s] body (nickvanderleek.com). Boukreev and Krakauer would both find themselves in their tents
There acclimatization process is that they will make one day round trips to the next camp 2,000 feet up to acclimatize. When they set out for their first trip Krakauer see a lot of the group putting on new boots that have not been worn and he gets worried. Also a lot of them haven't climbed in over a year.
In the memoir Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin, the author Mark Pfetzer is faced with an extremely amazing yet scary challenge of climbing Mount Everest. Each event is the story has something to do with the nature that is around them at that moment but Pfetzer shows the readers that nature can be a way of life.
If Krakauer, Hall, Hansen, and the other climbers were not loyal to each other, death would have been inevitable for everyone. While the team is climbing, one of the more experienced climbers and sherpa, Lopsang, decides to clip himself to Sandy. When asked why he did so, he responded, “because Scott wants all members to go to summit, and I am thinking Sandy will be weakest member, I am thinking she will be slow, so I will take her first.” (Page 222). Lopsang knew that the climb was beyond difficult, and he showed loyalty to Sandy by assisting her when she was weak. Another example of loyalty from the novel was shown by Hutchison. Even though the men were suffering from exhaustion, frostbite, and fear, “Hutchison organized a team of four Sherpas to locate the bodies of Weathers and Namba, who had been left on the far side of the Col when Anatoli Boukreev brought in Charlotte Fox, Sandy Pittman, and Tim Madsen.” (Page 322). This shows extreme loyalty because these men were dying, but showed respect to the dead by finding their bodies in attempt to bring closure to their families. Hutchison created a strong bond between himself and others, and he showed loyalty to people even after they died. In addition to the teammates showing loyalty to each other, the Sherpas created bonds with the climbers. Hall recognizes the immense impact the Sherpas have on the team and says, “I want you all to remember we would have absolutely no chance of getting to the summit of Everest without their help.” (Page 68). Hall showed loyalty to the Sherpas by respecting them, and only allowing them to climb to certain heights if they were not properly trained. Overall, loyalty was shown throughout the novel, and Krakauer could not have survived without the bonds he created with the other men and
No one makes wise choices all the time, but those who follow their own aspiration makes a person feel more alive. In fact, the people who go out and follow their dreams are explorers or achievers, but the vision of their dreams can become fatal. The reason for this is because they are following their own dreams. Chris McCandless was a hitchhiker who went out into Alaska to get away from society and follow his “‘great Alaskan odyssey.(Krakauer 45)’” Unfortunately, he died, but along the book Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, he takes his readers through Chris’s journal entries and journeys before he heads to Alaska. Naturally, Chris had the ability to be independent through his way into Alaska but had some flaws that caused his death; one
This became the deadliest expedition to ever climb, with 15 people losing their lives. Krakauer explains his intrinsic motivations to accept this challenge and many of the mistakes that helped lead to the disasters of that day. He includes himself, and explicitly blames himself for at least one person's death. The experience affects him profoundly, and in addition to telling the story, the book focuses on how Krakauer is forever changed as a result of what happened. All of the clients have difficulty adjusting to the altitude, tiring easily, losing weight and moving slowly.
My initial reaction to the words “You’re next book you will be reading is Into Thin Air” was definitely not me jumping up and down in my seat out of joy. I’ll admit I was not looking forward to reading this book at all. I tried putting off reading it for as long as possible, but then realized that I should just try reading the first chapter. After reading the first chapter I was completely hooked and I couldn’t get enough of the book. Jon Krakauer does a phenomenal job at keeping the reader engaged with what is happening throughout the book. You get an astounding story of the struggles that come with climbing Mount Everest and a wonderful background of the mountain and its history.
“What is the purpose of life?” This simple question intimidates many who refuse to confront the reality of life. Living in a fast paced world consumed by technology and materialism, it is difficult for one to examine what is truly important to live life wholly. Because of this struggle, many settle with unhappy lives, wallowing in fear, regret and dissatisfaction. In John Krakauer’s novel Into the Wild, he examines the short life of Christopher McCandless, a courageous man who detached himself from his past life in order to pursue something elusive in the Alaskan bush. Although Chris McCandless withdrew from the company of his family and friends, he journeyed into the wild philosophically free; gaining total independence and personal triumph,
In today’s world, we live in a society where we are subjected to follow rules, which are placed upon us by the society. Many people are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to follow the ideals of other people, or pursue their ideals and go against the prevailing conventions. In “Selections from Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, the author talks about a man named McCandless who went into the Alaskan wilderness in order to find his true self. His journey was also to escape from the societal norms of society. A person who goes into the wilderness believes that they can live their life with brute simplicity. This gives them little to no time with the complicated problems of modern society. Likewise, in “Waiting for a Jew” by Jonathan Boyarin, the author talks about one’s aspiration to find their identity and purpose in the community. He conveys that religious places, like shul, allow an individual to develop a cross- cultural self. The desires and expectations placed upon us by the society shape our strategies of personal identity; therefore, instilling fears that cause us to identify in opposition to our prevailing conventions.
Throughout the novel, the protagonist encounters many difficulties when trying to reach his goal of climbing Mount Everest. He encounters problems, from illnesses to deaths but most affectively the catastrophic weather. When Krakauer’s 5 friends die, including Rob Hall, Krakauer takes responsibility of the other climbers and helps them get through the tough weather safely. When they arrived to the base camps, many of the climbers gave up but Krakauer kept trying, he was motivated by Halls death to reach the top of Mount Everest. Krakauer finds ways to get around
The novel "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, he writes about an experience that changes his life when Outside magazine asks him to write an article about the commercialism of Mount Everest, he knew from that moment that he needed to climb the mountain. But of course his expedition does not go as expected. On May 10th Krakauer reaches the summit after a extremely stressful and treacherous trek up, but only to have to scale down the mountain with his team in one of the most dangerous seasons in the history of Everest. Many things went wrong when they came down the mountain and throughout this book, Jon attempts to evaluate what exactly happened and how things went wrong. He researches and figures out every person actions on that mountain. He has speculations about the failures of the expedition, and blames the catastrophe due to a series of little
Imagine feeling guilty for making it out alive on a journey. In the nonfiction novel, Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, he documents his journey to the summits of Mount Everest and ultimately accuses himself of holding responsible for the disaster on the mountain. After realizing only one-fourth of the people that climbed to the summits on May 10, 1996, made it back down to base camp alive, Krakauer theorizes why that was so. He attributes most of the reason for the disaster to the erratic weather, along with hubris, who wanted the thought of leading a group to the mountain. Despite those reasons, there is no ultimate reason for the deaths documented in the book, but bottom line the climbers that died didn’t thoroughly comprehend the danger they were going to encounter as a consequence that contributed to the disaster.
My last trip to the summit was a journey filled with danger and hardships. The group of people that I was to lead up Everest included Doug Hansen, Sandy Pittman, Jon Krakauer, and Beck Weathers. Doug Hansen had attempted the summit on a guided expedition by me a year earlier, but we had to turn back. All and all the beginning of this trip was similar to many of my other commercial expeditions. We started at Kathmandu and worked our way to Phakding, where I picked up my crew of Sherpas. The Sherpas are very important to our expedition, so I told the team to appreciate their hard work. We then continued to climb until we stopped at Lobuje. This overcrowded village was disgusting and caused many of my clients to become ill....
Sherpas can be the life or death of any new comer to climbing Everest or any summit of its standard. Sherpas are native people of Nepal which is also home of Mount Everest and these natives have lived in the conditions of high altitudes their whole life and are truly most adapted to the low amounts of oxygen and can climb a great amount of Mount Everest without any help of an oxygen tank. Sherpas can come along an expedition that is also guided by professional climbers that are paid for at the front door essentially. However, as of recently a fatal avalanche has claimed the lives of over 16 Sherpa men and three more men are missing but are presumed dead. Sherpas do not get the recognition they deserve, after all they do have THE most dangerous job in the world where “Nepal: Sherpa Strike Following Fatal Mt Everest Avalanche” writes, “with a shocking annual fatality rate of 4,035 per 100,000 full time equivalent workers over the last decade (Morrow 3).
What Shakespeare might call the fatal flaw of Fischer’s expedition seemed to be a collective lack of humility amongst his team, stemming of course from the top with Fischer himself, the “face” of the organization. Fischer was an ambitious man who was desperate to earn the respect of his peers, and came across as nothing short of overconfident when he was quoted in Krakauer's Into Thin Air as saying, "Experience is overrated. […] We've got the big E figured out, we've got it totally wired. […] (W)e've built a yellow brick road to the summit." (pp. 85-86) Even Fischer's experienced guide, Anatoli Boukreev, was not immune from pride, opting to make the climb without the use of supplemental oxygen, a decision that was not only completely unnecessary, but arguably ended up costing the lives of members of his team at the summit. Indeed, as Krakauer noted, there was a palpable lack of a team dynamic, a result of the Attraction-Selection-Attrition Theory; the team felt more like a bunch of individuals, all "in it for himself or herself." (Krakauer, p. 213) In a life or death situation, having a strong team dynamic is more important than ever. But Fischer was more interested in the parts, than the whole. As part of Fischer's ambition, he had made an effort to recruit high-profile clients, including a New York socialite who wrote for Allure magazine, and Krakauer himself, who could lend the expedition some heavy publicity, but brought very little by way of experience when it came to summiting a mountain as extreme as Everest.
...to wherever they were and make sure they were treated. He also ignores his own disease and ill condition to insure the clients have a shot at the summit. This may be viewed as foolishness but this type of self-sacrifice is something rare and admirable. In conclusion, both men have a usual connection to climbing.