Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
Posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Product Description
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. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more–including Krakauer’s–in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer’s epic account of the May 1996 disaster.Amazon.com Review
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. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more–including Krakauer’s–in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer’s epic account of the May 1996 disaster. With more than 250 black-and-white photographs taken by various expedition members and an enlightening new postscript by the author, the Illustrated Edition shows readers what this tragic climb looked like and potentially provides closure for Krakauer and his detractors.
“I have no doubt that Boukreev’s intentions were good on summit day,” writes Krakauer in a postscript dated August 1998. “What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev’s refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn’t the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients.” 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; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev’s version of events. And 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. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in a avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. Krakauer further buries the ice axe by donating his share of royalties from sales of The Illustrated Edition to the Everest ‘96 Memorial Fund, which aids various environmental and humanitarian charities. –Rob McDonald
I can’t help but falling asleep when I read this book! I had to read it for an English project, and I just couldn’t take in the info. This book isn’t worth the paper it was made with.
Rating: 1 / 5
I decided to write this review the morning after I made a bravest attempt of my life- to read a 400-page book about people trying to climb a really high mountain, and how people died attempting it. True that it is no ordinary mountain- it is the highest geological point on this planet. Still it nags me to just think about how a person “in his right mind” can write a very thick documentary about mountaineering, or what he claims himself as an “odd, immutable aspect of my personality,” and what almost brought he and his female house-mate apart. It is evident that Krakrauer does not really think of dangerous mountaineering activities as odd; if he did, he would not have written a book about it and advertises it to the entire reading public.
As for the book itself, I have discovered, after boldly fighting my numerous attempts put the book down and never pick it up again, that at least the first few hundred pages of this book are the most life-threateningly boring materials I have encountered in my life. Details after details- every single sentences everybody had said, regardless how inconsequential and content-less, such as “hi Pete, how are you doing this morning?” goes in the book. Also included in abundance, word for word, are downright indecent maledictions, taken in various forms of “Jesus f**king Christ! My feet really hurt!”). Since everything the author put in a book is supposedly what he think is important, we can conclude that the main concern of the author is not to tell us what lessons he learned from his extrodinary experience; his main concern is how to turn a 10-page travel log into something that is 40 times thicker, and sells.
So why does over 95% of those who read this book gave it so high a rating? The answer is probably that, feeling terribly bored with life, Kraukaur has found many allies in our modern, over-industrialized society. Since most people who read this book are from this society, they tend to be bored with life themselves and would therefore feel sympathy for the author
Similarly, since people who would spend 6 hours a day writing reviews on Amazon.com about books they’ve read are probably among those who are most bored with life, it justifies the overwhelmingly high rating of Krakauer’s manifest on Amazon.com.
Rating: 1 / 5
As a requirement for a class we were forced to read this fine piece of literature. Now while forced to read books maybe its the fact that you are required to turn each page for a grade, which could take away from the I am sure, utter page turning action of it all but maybe we found it difficult because it was not well written. It was somewhat obvious this wasn’t meant to be a book. It was meant to be an article. A nice three to four page article. We think that the extension an article to a book brought in several facts that were not only unnecessary but we are sure offensive to the family members of those that died.
Describing each climber’s death, such as the man that died while going to the bathroom, while interesting to read at the time; Consideration of people’s feelings afterwards leaves us thinking that it really wasn’t needed. Especially when a man with a wife and family passed away when Krakauer thought he was safe and told his wife the man was fine.
The book wasn’t all bad however; there were the occasional well written informational part. However explaining how Yasuko died while begging for Beidlemans help puts the reader in an odd spot. Although being the only book either of us has ever read about climbing Everest it really gives us a good idea that we don’t.
Our favorite unnecessary detail was the little fact about the transvestite reporter; it brought tears to our eyes, smiles to our mouths and made us willingly turn the next page. All in all we both suggest stopping after that detail and maybe taking a hike and reading a qualified piece of literature instead and not wasting your time. Maybe like a Chuck Palahniuk book instead, suggested fight club and invisible monsters which is actually exciting. Or an awesome classic such as Catcher in the Rye which actually has character development and contains not only controversial subjects but has an excellent story line.
The End
Rating: 1 / 5
Jon Krakauer isnt worth the blood in his veins.
Rating: 1 / 5
Well…beggining started off slowly…the end was ok but it wasn’t really my kind of book I don’t recomend it unless your an insomniac and need something to bore you to sleep.
Rating: 1 / 5