Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air indulges in the numerous obstacles the climbers encountered while summiting Mount Everest. The Mount Everest expeditions in May 1996 uncovered the extreme dangers that can occur when people experience poor judgement. Although the climbers had their own self-interest in mind, the actions of one climber affects the entire expedition. While ascending Everest, the climbers encountered several challenges from physical, emotional, and environmental obstacles that shaped their experiences on Mount Everest. But, psychological obstacles affected the climbers the most because they had a fear of failure. Likewise, people experience failures throughout their lives, and they are eager for success. Subsequently, their extreme …show more content…
He could not accept failure again: “I’d gotten to know Doug well enough at that point to realize that he’d spent the entire previous year agonizing over the fact that he’d gotten to within three hundred feet of the summit and had to turn around” (Krakauer 171). Hansen remained determined throughout the climb to the summit despite becoming ill and climbing slower than the rest of the group, since he failed to summit the previous year. For both trips to Mount Everest, Hansen invested approximately $128,000 in total for an opportunity to summit the peak. Hansen had invested an enormous amount of time and money. By choosing to attempt two expeditions, Hansen put his job as a postal worker on hold. In addition, the students of Sunrise Elementary School fundraised for Hansen’s trip; he had added pressure on him to succeed because he had assistance in funding, and he wanted the students to see that dreams do come true (Krakauer 73). His fear of failure resulted in his unrelenting stride toward the summit. Although he summited around 4:00, Hansen was in no condition to descend when the storm occurred; his determination and Hall’s lack of commitment with the turn-around time combined to place the two in a deadly situation (Krakauer 236). Doug Hansen experienced failure atop Mount Everest in 1995, and his fear of repeating the same …show more content…
Fischer concerned himself mainly with his recognition throughout the climbing community: “He worried that some of these top climbers didn’t respect him” (Krakauer 68). His lack of recognition among the climbing community led Fischer to perform difficult tasks, which led him to push himself and cause several drastic falls. While in Utah’s Provo Canyon, Fischer challenged two experienced climbers, but he fell 100 feet and survived (Krakauer 67). Fischer had a reputation for being extreme on the mountains and lucky to survive some of his falls. He became accustomed to striving for excellence and pushing himself no matter the risk; therefore, he would not allow Everest to elude his expedition. In addition to his suffering ego, Fischer started Mountain Madness in an attempt to establish a competitive business against Rob Hall’s Adventure Consultants: “If he could emulate Hall, it would quickly catapult Mountain Madness to profitability” (Krakauer 70). Fischer hoped to become more respected if he became more like Hall who experienced greater success. Fischer’s determination to be someone drove him to push himself beyond his threshold; while climbing Annapurna massif in Nepal, he became infected with Entamoeba histolytica, which results in sweating spells and the shakes (Krakauer 210-211). Fischer rarely revealed his condition, due to
Chapter 7: In chapter 7 Krakauer talks about how Everest has changed from a professionals trek to anyone's trek. He explains that many inexperienced people have climbed Mount Everest with the help of sherpas and guides. He also mentions about the determination of Everest and how in some instances in history people who weren't allowed into Tibet or Nepal but they snuck in and managed to climb and summit Everest
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.
Into Thin Air begins with author Jon Krakauer being hired to write for a magazine about the commercialism on Mount Everest. While researching, Krakauer’s curiosity and courage gets the best of him, and he decides to climb the mountain. After staying at the Base Camp for weeks, Krakauer and his group still have difficulty adjusting to the altitude and living conditions. Little do Krakauer and his teammates know, but the original adjustment to the mountain is going to be the least of their problems. During the journey up and down the mountain, the weather, altitude, physical exhaustion and climbing mistakes get the best of the group. In an effort to keep everyone safe, the climbers established a “turn around time” stating that any climber that
Krakauer struggles with survivor guilt and a redefined view on mortality and addresses questions about events on the mountain that perhaps don't have answers. Krakauer acknowledges and apologizes for any pain or anger his book might arose in the friends and families of victims, but is undeterred from detailing the events, be they heroic, selfish or tragic. Introduction Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997 bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is an adventurous story about a Mount Everest expedition gone wrong. The journey up the mountain is like previous trips, but once they reach the top of the mountain all hell breaks loose. A massive storm traps climbers stuck on the top of the mountain with little to no oxygen, no shelter, and nowhere to go. Oxygen depletion alone can kill someone and make them vulnerable to novice mistakes. Krakauer notices when he is lacking oxygen as he says, “The world beyond the rubber mask was stupendously vivid but seemed not quite real, as if a movie were being projected in slow motion across the front of my goggles. I felt drugged, disengaged, thoroughly insulated from external stimuli” (179). HACE, a medical condition in which the brain swells, is caused by a lack of oxygen and can kill people within 48 hours if not treated. With a lack of shelter, the climbers are exposed to Artic-like conditions.
As promised, his father took him to Mount Everest. As a result, Peak is given the opportunity to bury his past and emerge as an innocent boy. Though, when his father revealed why they were in South Asia, Peak embraced his father’s decision by wanting to climb Mount Everest, no matter what the cost. This lead one to believe that he was intrigued by this new opportunity. Peak’s journey was not easy and he faced opposition from his father’s group who did not want Peak to be first at the top of Everest. As a result, Peak’s selfishness had grown by him being kicked out of the group, as it states in the text, “This was when I realized Sun-Jo wasn’t with us. I was so mad he didn’t also get booted out of camp.” (Smith page 194). However, it was all just a hoax to please the entire group, which resulted in Peak and Sun-Jo trying to reach the summit
In the article “Responds to Krakauer”, by Anatoli Boukreev he argues against the topic of Krakauer's accusations, Krakauer argues that Boukreev wasn’t well prepared to climb Mt. Everest. He mentions that boukreev wasn’t making his best decisions on May 10, 1996. Boukreev argues that his experience has been for over twenty years and that climbing in a high altitude. Boukreev explains how he’s been on top of Mt. Everest and most of his time up there he requires no oxygen. He mentions how it’s not as necessary to him when climbing. Krakauer not only only mentions the oxygen but he also mentions how he wasn’t well dressed for climbing the top of Everest. That if he would’ve been well prepared the tragedy wouldn’t of had happened. Boukreev also
While Peak and his group are climbing a steep icewall, one of the climber’s ice axe broke. Peak decides to climb down and help the fellow climber. This act could have killed Peak, yet he would risk his own life for a friend. “Got him! I shouted down to Zopa”(202). This quote reveals that Peak saved his fellow climbers life. Also, when Peak is less than 10 feet away from the summit of Everest he lets Sun-Jo reach the top. Even though Sun-Jo was having issues up the whole mountain and Peak saved his life. Peak and Sun-Jo are both 14. They both would be the youngest to make it to the Summit of Everest. Sun-Jo is poor and all Sun-Jo wants to do is go to school. Peak lets Sun-Jo reach the summit and get all the money and fame. “I don’t have a reason for being here. I’m heading back down the north side”(230). This quote shows Peak is letting Sun-Jo to the summit, and Peak just climbs down the mountain, not even reaching the summit after Sun-Jo. Too often in life, criminals do not change to kind people but, Peak’s actions show readers that 1 little thing can fix up someone's
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
Imagine standing outside trying to farm your dying crops. All of a sudden, the sky gets dark. You look up and see a big, black cloud heading straight towards your town. You attempt to seek shelter, but it is too late. Cars come to a complete stop, and people rush to get cover. The cloud of dirt sweeps into your small town, and you can no longer see anything but only feel the gritty dirt blowing against your skin. This occurrence is what people experienced during the Dust Bowl. In the historical fiction book, Out of the Dust, the author, Karen Hesse, describes the hardships that Billie Jo and her family faced during the worst years of the Dust Bowl. Hesse depicts the effects of the dust storms, reasons for the occurrence of the dust storms,
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 for holding acquisitiveness responsibility 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 down back to base camp alive, Krakauer theorizes about why that was so. He attributes most of the reason for the disaster to the erratic weather along with hubris, he wanted for 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 contributes to the disaster.
Everest is an unbelievable mountain that has taken the lives of a number of the greatest climbers in history. It was my job to ensure that clients make it up that treacherous mountain safely. My name is Rob Hall. I was the main guide and cofounder of a climbing company called Adventure Consultants. My friend, Gary Ball, and I used to be professional climbers. Together we succeeded in climbing to the highest summit on each of the seven continents in seven months. This was our greatest achievement. After this, we decided to start our own company guiding clients up large mountains. In May 1992, we successfully led six clients to the summit of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary died of cerebral edema in October 1993 during an attempt on the world’s sixth-tallest mountain. He died in my arms and the next day I buried him in a crevasse. Despite the pain that his death had caused me, I continued guiding for our company and eventually led thirty-nine climbers to the summit of Everest.
Krakauer uses character motivation to express the characters ambition to successfully summit Everest. Scott Fisher, the Mountain Madness head guide, “has this burning ambition to be a great climber, to be one of the best in the world.” His ambition is useful for his climbing career, but when he “pushes himself beyond any physical limitation,” he ends up dying in the end. Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa, Fisher’s climbing Sirdar, beats himself up for his death. Krakauer said, “Unfortunately, the sort of individual who is programmed to ignore personal
...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.