Note to self: take climbing Everest off bucket list.

This is probably the best climbing book I have read despite the controversy surrounding some aspects. It was as enthralling as books like Endurance and as readable. I was with the author on the mountain and felt the terrible pain of the losses they endured, the guilt of the survivors and the many "what ifs" after the event.

The author relays his personal experiences climbing Everest in 1996 with a number of groups. This was the tragic year when many of the participants didn't make it off the mountain due to a catalogue of errors and an untimely snow storm. He also documents a lot of the history of other climbs and delves into the personalities and characters of some of the great climbers.

More generally, I am drawn to these adventure books and stories which hold a certain fascination. But whenever I read about the cost ($70,000 minimum,) the risk ( 1 in 4 people die in an Everest attempt) and the pain and possible life changing injuries from frost bite, I am always glad I can just read about it from the warmth and comfort of a safe altitude on dry ground.

There is something unique about people who set out to achieve these goals. Krakauer describes them like this

To become a climber was to join a self-contained, rabidly idealistic society, largely unnoticed and surprisingly uncorrupted by the world at large. The culture of ascent was characterised by intense competition and undiluted machismo, but for the most part, its constituents were concerned with impressing one another only. Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the more unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable

I find myself wondering how they feel when it is all over. They have spent a fortune, risked everything, endured much pain, put their waiting family through a nightmare and possibly lost colleagues or friends to a gruesome death. What is it all for? Is it worth it? What are they really seeking?

Reading books like this, one might suppose that most climbers do it for the beauty of the scenery or the thrill of the surroundings. However, it is clear from this book and others that these aspects very much take a back seat. Instead, it is a competition to be the best in the field and it can take over a person's life. Climbing mountains is what they dream about and ultimately what they live for. It can become an obsession in the same way that sport or work or any other hobby can. That is when it becomes dangerous and purposeless.

God created each of us with a vacuum that only He can fill. Man will seek to deny this and seek pleasure and fulfillment in many places other than God. These things then become idols. They must be kept in their proper place and we need to keep a proper perspective.

This is a great book. The strong language is not so great hence the less than perfect rating. There is no sexual content and no violence. There are upsetting scenes of death.

About a year ago, I read a book called Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth which was basically all about finding the basement of the earth. A group of cave divers descended into a seemingly bottomless cave full of all sorts of unknown danger. For some reason after finishing it, I didn’t return to any exploration books even though this tale fascinated me. It wasn’t until recently when I listened to an episode of Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier’s SModcast in which Mosier recommended Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air that I gave it another go.

Now, going in, I knew next to nothing about Mount Everest. I knew the basics:

a)tIt’s the tallest mountain in the word and;
b)tIt’s really difficult to climb.

Just how difficult? Well, for starters there are frozen bodies littered on it. Try that on for size. I thought I had a grip on just how difficult it was to climb the damn thing but I had no idea that people had died on there and that upon dying, never left. Oh, and don’t forget altitude sickness, falling rocks and boulders as well as blocks of ice the size of large buildings that have been known to detach and fall without warning.

Jon Krakauer gives a stunning account of his attempt at conquering the mighty monster in 1996 with a slew of others. While he goes into pretty extensive detail in describing his arduous journey to the top, it’s what happens when he reaches the summit that is both captivating and terrifying. Greeted by a terrible and destructive storm, Krakauer and his teammates struggled for survival in an attempt to make their way back down the mountain. Some made it, others didn’t. In fact, some of those who survived did so with extraordinary feats of strength coupled with an undying will to make it off of that mountain.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here; I feel I would ruin it if I don’t let Krakauer have his go at telling the full story to you. There are parts of this book where you honestly think to yourself, this can’t get any worse. Then, it does, especially when it comes to Beck Weathers. Sweet cream on an ice cream sandwich, what that man went through is mind-blowing.

This was a compelling and heartbreaking read for me, made all the worse by the fact that these were real people in tragically real circumstances. Krakauer brings the reader into his first-hand experience of the events without sensationalizing any of it. For those interested in true life stories that take the reader on a roller coaster of emotions, this one will do the job.

★★★★★

Several authors and editors I respect counseled me not to write the book as quickly as I did; they urged me to wait two or three years and put some distance between me and the expedition in order to gain some crucial perspective. Their advice was sound, but in the end I ignored it- mostly because what happened on the mountain was gnawing my guts out. I thought that writing the book might purge Everest from my life. It hasn’t of course.

But it is the way this reads, as Jon Krakauer, a client of Rob Hall’s, Adventure Consultants Guided Expedition, takes us step by brutal step up that mountain, in the spring of 1996. And back down again! Clearly the account of an anguished man desperately trying to make sense of it all, by telling it all. Not an easy task.

The Everest climb had rocked my life to its core, and it became desperately important for me to record the events in complete detail. The staggering unreliability of the human mind at high altitude made the research problematic. To avoid relying excessively on my own perceptions, I interviewed most of the protagonists at great length and on multiple occasions. When possible I also corroborated details with radio logs maintained by people at base camp, where clear thought wasn’t in such short supply.

Chances are I would not have read this were it not for my daughter’s unbridled enthusiasm in discussing it one Saturday morning when I was over for coffee. When I left that day Into Thin Air left with me. Hands down the greatest adventure, survivor story I have ever read. How could it not be? The author's visceral honesty in portraying his own part in this tragedy, took my breath away and lends undeniable,crediblity to this account.

The plain truth is that I knew better but went to Everest anyway. And in doing so I was party to the death of good people, which is something that is apt to remain on my conscience for a very long time.

Five stars are not enough for this book!

The story itself is both exciting and terrifying, but the added history, geography, intimate portrait of the hikers, and the author's incredible storytelling skill elevate the book to one of the best I've read in a long time. Now I want to go hike something tall and cold

Things that can happen while attempting to climb Mt Everest:

•Get frostbite on your nose, toes, fingers, etc, leading to permanent nerve damage and/or amputation

•One or both of your eyes freeze shut

•Slip and fall 7,000 feet down a sheer rock face

•Develop an altitude-induced blood clot

•Develop high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) - "a mysterious, potentially lethal illness typically brought on by climbing too high, too fast in which the lungs fill with fluid"

•Brain cells die due to insufficient oxygen

•Insufficient oxygen decreases your ability to metabolize food and your body starts consuming itself

•Your blood becomes "dangerously thick and sludgelike. Capillaries in our retinas were spontaneously hemorrhaging."

•A boulder the size of a small television comes rocketing down from the cliffs above, smashing into your chest, knocking you into a deep crevasse

Things that can happen while relaxing by the pool, reading a book about climbing Mt. Everest:

•None of the above



I don't know about you, but this wasn't a difficult decision for me to make. 

And it's not just those things - a hell of a lot more can happen. A hell of a lot more did happen to the people in this book who bravely insanely attempted to climb that mountain, just because it's there. 

I don't know what your choice would be, but I don't think you can go wrong by reading this book.

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a 1997 bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer.

It details Krakauer's experience in the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a storm.

Krakauer's expedition was led by guide Rob Hall. Other groups were trying to summit on the same day, including one led by Scott Fischer, whose guiding agency, Mountain Madness, was perceived as a competitor to Hall's agency, Adventure Consultants.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز چهارم ماه سپتامبر سال 2010 میلادی

عنوان: در هوای رقیق؛ نویسنده: جان کراکائور؛ مترجم یحیی خوئی؛ تهران چشمه‏‫، ‏‫1387؛ در 355ص؛ مصر، نقشه، شابک 9789643624897؛ موضوع: داستان گروه‌های کوهنوردی - اورست از نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 20م

بسوی هوای رقیق: برداشتی شخصی از فاجعه ی «کوه اورست»، یا «در هوای رقیق»، یکی از پرفروش‌ترین آثار غیرداستانی سال 1997میلادی و به قلم «جان کراکائر» است؛ این کتاب جزئیات حضور نویسنده در «کوه اورست» در خلال فاجعه ی سال 1996میلادی «کوه اورست» را به تصویر کشیده‌ است؛ جاییکه هشت کوهنورد جان باختند، و بسیاری دیگر، در طوفانی سخت، گرفتار آمدند؛ اردویی که نویسنده در آن به سر می‌برد، به رهبری «راب هال» پیش می‌رفت، در حالیکه گروه‌های دیگری نیز، در همان روز، می‌خواستند قله را فتح کنند؛ یکی از این گروه‌ها، «جنون کوه» به رهبری «اسکات فیشر» بود، که با گروه «راب»، «مشاوران ماجراجویی» رقیب به حساب می‌آمد؛ در سال 1997میلادی اقتباسی سینمایی از این کتاب، با عنوان «در هوای رقیق: مرگ در اورست» به کارگردانی «رابرت مارکویتز» ساخته شد؛ فیلم دیگری هم در مورد این فاجعه در سال 2015میلادی با عنوان «اورست» ساخته شد ،که به ادعای کارگردان، «بالتاسار کورماکور» این کتاب تنها منبع آن نبوده‌ و منابع دیگری نیز داشته است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/04/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Into Thin Air is a recollection of the tragic events of May 1996, when numerous individuals died following an ascent to the top of Everest. It is told by Jon Krakauer, a journalist and mountaineer who initially joined the expedition to write a magazine piece on the growing industry of 'guided' groups of inexperienced mountaineers.

This was a fascinating memoir, that really delves deep into the disaster and the small moments of bad luck and judgement that contributed to so much death. Krakauer really makes the reader understand each and every single person who was involved, drawing on their personal histories and passion for mountaineering and bringing it to the forefront of the reader's mind. Everyone there that day had a common goal - to reach the summit, and all of them were gripped to some degree by Everest fever. The mystique of the mountain drew them all in, pushing some of them beyond the limits, and I found myself equally enthralled and incredibly anxious to find out their inevitable fate.

I was also really facinated by Krakauer's descriptions of high altitude sickness, and just how debilitating it is on the body. Far from just shortness of breath, the body is subjected to horrendous migraines, blindness, hypoxia, hypothermia, intestinal issues and cerebral and pulmonary edema. The effects can be sudden, and deadly, as well as warping the mind and making a difficult journey innumerably harder as the brain become sluggish and mistakes are more likely to happen. The whole experience is utterly exhausting on body and mind, making any ascent of Everest even more amazing.

Sometimes I did get confused by who was who, as the author tended to switch between first and surnames regularly - meaning I had to remember two names for an already large group. I also found it difficult to pinpoint where everyone was during certain scenes as I am unfamiliar with the layout of Everest. However, looking up some pictures of the South Col and the various Camps helped 'set the scene' in my mind.

Utterly riveting, ultimately heartbreaking. Nature is a cruel mistress in the pursuit of glory.

Until 2014, one of the trail markers for mountaineers climbing the Everest on the main Northeast ridge route was "Green Boots", the corpse of a man wearing, well, green climbing boots - yes, a dead man was an Everest landmark, and people passed him by and photographed him (I will certainly not provide links). Most likely, it was the body of Head Constable Tsewang Paljor of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police who was part of an expedition that happened in the background of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, which is the main topic of Krakauer's book. While the corpse is not at that specific place anymore, Mr. Paljor's body is presumably still somewhere up there, but no one can say with certainty - what is certain though is that the cynicism and sensationalism that "Green Boots'" treatment illustrates is very telling and that the impulses behind it are an underlying theme of "Into Thin Air".

American journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer was part of an expedition that aimed to summit Mount Everest in May 1996, the same day as several other groups of climbers. Due to a series of unfortunate events, wrong decisions and an upcoming storm, eight mountaineers died and several got severely injured and almost froze to death. While Krakauer's account of the unfolding tragedy is certainly intriguing, the psychological dimension is what fascinated me: Why are people deciding to summit Everest, and what are the moral implications? Krakauer talks about motivational factors like a love of nature and a longing for adventure, but also vanity, the impulse to challenge oneself and the wish to stand out, all characteristics represented by members of the expeditions. Some mountaineers are unable or unwilling to question their own abilities, thus threatening the lives of other climbers and the sherpas who often risk everything for their rich clients in order to be able to feed their families. (After an ice avalanche killed 16 sherpas in 2014, the sherpas went on strike to push for better working conditions.)

The commercialization of Everest is an important topic in the book: The heads of the expeditions aim to guide as many participants to the summit as possible - they assume that especially Krakauer, the reporter, and Sandy Pittmann, the society girl, will generate publicity when they get home to tell their stories. Commercial expeditions are a competitive business, and clients who pay tens of thousands of dollars to take on Everest are very motivated to make it to the top - and this tunnel vision is potentially deadly for everyone involved. On the highest mountain of the world, the lack of humility can be a death sentence.

Since Krakauer wrote this book (it was published in 1997), these tendencies have become more and more extreme. John Oliver did a fantastic episode entitled "Everest" which talks about the current state of affairs. More and more inexperienced climbers join commercial expeditions, and now there is a also a serious problem with garbage and feces in the Himalaya. The sherpas' job becomes more and more dangerous, which is not exactly widely discussed as the rich white dilettantes want to tell heroic stories about their fearless ascent to the summit while showing numerous selfies. Oliver offers an alternative which is safer for everybody: https://www.thetopofmounteverest.com

And still, I understand the urge to explore, to see and experience new environments and extreme situations, to travel to remote, beautiful, dangerous places, to try and find out how far you can go. Parts of Krakauer's book reminded me of T.C. Boyle's novel Water Music about Scottish explorer Mungo Park who was obsessed by his wish to explore West Africa - and paid a high price. In a way, Krakauer and Boyle talk about rather universal human aspirations, about the Faustian impulse to know and conquer - this disruptive impulse can be beautiful or terrible.

We've discussed the book on the podcast, and you can listen to it here (in German).

Into Thin Air or Injustice (of many kinds) on the Mountain.

Until almost the end this book was exactly as I expected it to be with just one exception. It was the story of a journalist climbing Mount Everest both as a journalist and as a mountaineer. Ideal getting paid to do your hobby! It was interesting because Krakauer is a damn good writer and because its fascinating to see the details of how the mountain is climbed.

It's also disappointing because few individuals do it by themselves, without a major support, like the guy who bicycled all the way around Europe to Nepal and then climbed the mountain alone (I would have liked to have read his story but it was only alluded to in the book. **I later read his book Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey).

For everyone else its a package tour for the fit and not-necessarily experienced who want to climb Everest and have an awful lot of spare cash. Transport is arranged, tents are set up, luggage is carried, there will be steaming hot tea awaiting the climbers on their return to their tents after an expedition, and if they really can't climb well, they can be short-roped and pulled up. Short-roped is the climber roping themselves with a less-than-one-metre rope to the waist of the would-be-climber and literally hauling them up.

Still, even with all this portering and pampering I was surprised that the first climbers of the season (using last year's ropes) fitted ropes up Everest so that the climbers didn't have to set their own. More than that, the really difficult bits got ladders installed! But no matter how many shortcuts and easements they are able to achieve there are two things that can neither be predicted nor controlled. One is altitude sickness which in some forms can kill very quickly, and in others causes mental delusions that led one of the team to his death. And the other is the weather. 15 climbers died the year Krakauer climbed.

At the beginning of this review, I mentioned there was one exception to my expectations for this book based on several books I have read by this author. The exception was one extraordinary chapter full of the most vituperative nastiness against a socialite climber. I didn't know why it was there. He didn't get any nicer towards her as the book progressed either, but then he said that when he was writing the book he had a 75 minute phone conversation with her. Either she didn't know what he'd written - I would never bother wasting time on someone who had that little respect for me and intended to tell the world - or he didn't write it until after the phone conversation. My only reaction to the chapter was thinking that the author was such a damn bitch.

The last chapter was tremendously interesting. Krakauer had not had much respect for another of the climbers - the guide and tour leader Anatoli Boukreev. He felt that Boukreev was more fulfilling his own ambitions of climbing than in sticking to his job of helping others to climb and looking after their safety. Boukreev wrote his own book saying that Krakauer had not mentioned certain incidents somewhat detrimental to himself and that he had made some observational errors, either through oxygen deprivation or wilfullness, and gave his own version of the climb. This argy-bargy went back and forth in print and on tv, and this chapter is Krakauer defending himself. Sadly Boukreev, a climber par excellence, was buried under an avalanche on Annapurna the following year, in 1997, so we will never get to hear what he thought of Krakauer's defence.

The book is worth reading because the Sherpas have always been sidelined in stories of climbing Everest. As if it is somehow more praiseworthy for a White man to climb the mountain and its nothing really for the Sherpas who can just hop up and down like monkeys carrying all the loads while the white man Climbs. This book sets the record straight. The mountain could not be the business it is without the Sherpas.

The tour companies and guides have enormous respect for these men and their abilities and form as firm friendships with them as they do with anyone else in their lives. Its a shame that this respect doesn't extend to paying them more than the one-tenth they earn compared to the tour guides but of course its justified in the traditional way - this is local wages, this is a lot of money for the locals, the locals don't need the things the guides from America, Australia etc do... Oh YAWN, I've heard it all before. Why can't people just put their money where their mouth is. You can't pay bills and put your kids through school on respect. Reduced by 1-star to four stars because of this.

Rewritten 7 May 2020 due to Covid-19 boredom, finding the book and skimming through it.

On my second reading of this well-known text, it occurs to me that the difference between Jon Krakauer's view of mountaineering and other, similar works is that Krakauer approaches it as a sole activity, more or less, not so much as a member of a group as in, say, Eric Newby's A SHORT WALK IN THE HINDU KUSH.

Otherwise the "plot" of this book focuses on Jon Krakauer's 1997 account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which bad weather, overcrowding and (in some cases) help that wasn't quite as expert as had been thought, makes for gripping reading. In the intervening over twenty years, this book has been assailed and reviled by people who hoped to revise reality into pleasanter outcomes, but have come up short. INTO THIN AIR deserved its huge readership, and deserves to sell well still. To me, it was close to a can't-put-it-down read. In the 1999 paperback edition, Krakauer directly speaks to the criticisms leveled against him, and in this reviewer's opinion acquits himself. Nonetheless, I'd recommend Newby's A SHORT WALK IN THE HINDU KUSH above this (maybe "it's just me'!).