In 1996, John Krakauer joined a guided group on a journey to the summit of Everest, which unfortunately turned into a tragic expedition. The fact that one in four people who attempt to reach the top of Everest will perish before descending safely is truly astonishing. It is mind-boggling that anyone would be willing to spend two months of their lives on such a perilous adventure, relying solely on the hope that the weather and luck will be in their favor.

Krakauer is an outstanding writer, and his vivid descriptions allow the reader to feel as if they are actually hiking Everest, experiencing the light-headedness caused by the lack of oxygen and having to make life-and-death decisions while being impaired by hypoxia. His use of language is truly breathtaking.

During this particular expedition, several elite, world-class climbers lost their lives, perhaps due in part to the competitive spirit of wanting to get their clients to the top. Even though not all of the clients had the necessary talent, they had the financial means and the desire. Their deaths were truly horrific. Even the one person who managed to survive but suffered severe frostbite did not have an enviable outcome. None of their stories would inspire me to attempt anything remotely similar to what they did. This is an exciting action story, even though many people are already familiar with the general idea of what happened or what could potentially happen in any given year on Everest or any mountain higher than 8,000 meters above sea level.

In the telling of this story, there are both good and bad characters. However, despite the fact that his own life was at risk due to the poor decisions of the guides and other climbers, not only from his own group but also from other expeditions, Krakauer does a remarkable job of maintaining his journalistic objectivity. This is truly impressive work and well worth reading.

This is a story that seems almost too improbable, too much like a cinematic plot, to be fabricated. In 1996, journalist and mountain climber Jon Kraukauer was tasked with covering an Everest ascent expedition. He chronicled the experiences of various people, some seasoned climbers and some not, who had paid a significant sum for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kraukauer was part of one of three American-led climbing teams attempting to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. By the time the teams returned to Base Camp, eleven people had lost their lives on the mountain.

Kraukauer's book details the journey to Everest, the diverse individuals on the teams, the storm that scattered the group just below the summit, and the tragic aftermath. This book, among other things, endeavors to rationalize the decisions and behaviors of some in the group and understand how so many died senselessly. Kraukauer himself, being part of the team, is not an impartial witness, and the book does not shy away from his own culpability - at least two of the deaths during the expedition were likely a direct result of his actions.

There are two main attractions of this book. Firstly, you get a firsthand look at what goes into an Everest expedition, so you never have to actually undertake it yourself (seriously, DO NOT CLIMB EVEREST. Even if you don't die, it's still a terrible idea). Secondly, you have Kraukauer's in-depth investigation of the deaths that he himself may have contributed to. He also attempts to explain how a person decides to climb the world's highest mountain and why anyone would want to do so. For me, this was the only real weak point of the book as, despite Kraukauer's best efforts, I never once thought that climbing Everest sounded like a reasonable thing to attempt.

Seriously, Everest is nonsense and it was all I could talk about for days after finishing this book. For one thing, Everest isn't even a difficult climb from a technical perspective. It's only hard because the high altitude can be lethal - the climb itself isn't challenging. At one point, the team climbs a series of ladders that were tied to a rock face by a team in the 1970s.

Another interesting fact I learned from this book is that there are two main ways to die on Everest. Firstly, you can lose your footing and fall into a crevasse or slide off a cliff and die instantly. This is the easy way to die on Everest. The hard way is to get altitude sickness (a euphemism - past a certain altitude, even with supplemental oxygen, your brain starts to die), collapse, and be unable to get up. Then your team has to leave you there as they can't carry you down, so you lie in the snow, fully conscious, waiting to die. And then your corpse becomes a landmark, along with all the other dead bodies just sitting up there. (There's a great My Favorite Murder podcast episode about the bodies on Everest, and it's truly heartbreaking.)

Apart from examining his own role in the tragedy and getting others' accounts of what happened, Kraukauer also spends time discussing whether it's a good idea for people to attempt Everest in the first place. Besides the very real risk of death, he also considers the ethics of employing local Sherpa guides and whether supplemental oxygen ultimately helps or harms climbers. And, on top of all that, this book is essentially a murder investigation - Kraukauer reviews the events of the fateful day, interviews the other surviving climbers, and evaluates the decisions of the guides and their role in the tragedy. He manages to strike a good balance of not avoiding his own responsibility while also reminding readers that he and the other climbers were suffering from severe oxygen deprivation, affecting both their decision-making and memories.

It's easy to read Kraukauer's other book of wilderness tragedy, Into the Wild, with a certain sense of superiority. Christopher McCandless died because he was woefully unprepared to survive in the wild, and his lack of knowledge and naivety cost him his life. But, as Into Thin Air proves, you can be a seasoned professional with thousands of successful climbs under your belt and still die because of one stupid mistake, as Nature doesn't care. Anyone can (and does) die on Everest, and Kraukauer's book examines, among other things, whether it's worth it.

One of the most horrifying things I've read in a while.

The sense of doom is palpable. I knew Everest climbers are always walking past corpses, but the corpses of people they knew? That's infinitely worse. There are two separate descriptions of people literally walking past dying or desperate mountaineers and just leaving them to die because helping them would mean not getting to the top of the pointy rock. Christ.

The book is a howl of pain from someone who, if only belatedly, realised the human cost of getting up the pointy rock wasn't worth whatever they gained from doing so. What that gain might be, whether it's spiritual enlightenment, a sense of achievement over nature, or something else, is not made clear by this author. Given how many people died, this isn't surprising.

Let us not dwell on the super rich USian proto-influencer who made Sherpas carry 80lbs of electronics up Everest so she could post the 1990s equivalent of selfies.

Good lord, basically. This account truly highlights the dark side of extreme mountaineering and the sacrifices that are sometimes made in the pursuit of a goal. It makes one question the value and ethics of such endeavors.

Above the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition truly transformed into an almost Calvinistic endeavor. The disparity between misery and pleasure was exponentially greater than that of any other mountain I had ever set foot on. I swiftly grasped that climbing Everest was predominantly about withstanding pain. As we subjected ourselves to week after week of arduous toil, unrelenting tedium, and profound suffering, it dawned on me that most of us were likely in search of something akin to a state of grace.

“With sufficient determination, any fool can ascend this hill,” Hall noted. “The challenge lies in getting back down alive.”

Into Thin Air emerged from remarkable timing. Jon Krakauer was penning a magazine article on the commercialization of attempts to scale Mt. Everest by joining a commercial expedition to climb the mountain. After nearly two months of climbing, he was among the first of his team to reach the summit in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996. However, as he commenced his descent, others were still ascending when a hurricane-level storm struck the mountain. Over the next 24 hours, while Mr. Krakauer was striving to recover from the astonishing physical toll of the climb, eight other climbers perished, including two highly esteemed guides – the deadliest incident on Mt. Everest at that time.

Into Thin Air is an incredibly captivating story. There is the meticulous detailing of the history of the attempts to climb Mt. Everest. Even more remarkable is the first-person account of what it is like to undertake such a climb. I had no inkling that it demanded two months at a base camp, making short trips to camps at higher elevations to acclimatize the body to produce more red blood cells to cope with the thin oxygen levels, until a final assault on the summit. The final day of climbing up and back down from the summit was utterly fascinating.

Once the storm hits, Into Thin Air remains engaging, but I am unsure if I can believe Mr. Krakauer’s version of events. He is the first to concede that he was hallucinating by the time the storm arrived, which renders his own recollections unreliable (and the same can largely be said for many of the other participants he interviewed). Indeed, he admits that he tragically misidentified someone, leading to others not realizing one of the climbers was missing for many hours. Moreover, Mr. Krakauer apportions blame to certain individuals in his narration of this story, and other books and experts have emerged and contended that Mr. Krakauer is simply incorrect in his conclusions. Since I possess absolutely no expertise in this domain, I am left uncertain as to who or what I should believe regarding the extent of human error that contributed to this tragic loss of life.

Into Thin Air is a truly effective story. You will feel as though you are right there on the mountain. And you will empathize with Mr. Krakauer as he grapples with his role in these events and his survivor’s guilt. However, in addition to my concerns above, I do not think the story ever truly delves into the why – why do people take such incredible risks with their lives to climb a mountain? Perhaps I am just too risk-averse, but even after reading the book, I feel that the answer is still merely a variation of George Mallory’s famous response, “Because it’s there.”

**Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer**

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster is a highly acclaimed non-fiction book published in 1997. Written by Jon Krakauer, it vividly details his harrowing experience during the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. In this tragic event, eight climbers lost their lives and several others were left stranded by a powerful storm.

Krakauer's expedition was led by the experienced guide Rob Hall. However, on the same day, other groups were also attempting to summit the mountain. One of these groups was led by Scott Fischer, and his guiding agency, Mountain Madness, was seen as a competitor to Hall's Adventure Consultants. The intense competition and the unforgiving nature of the mountain combined to create a dangerous situation.

The book has not only been a bestseller but has also inspired two films. In 1997, a made-for-TV movie titled "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest" was directed by Robert Markowitz. Then, in 2015, another film simply called "Everest" was made. The director, Baltasar Kormákur, claimed that the book was not the only source for the film and that he had used other materials as well.

First read on September 4, 2010, this book provides a gripping and detailed account of a fateful event on Mount Everest. It offers insights into the challenges and risks faced by climbers and has become an important work in the genre of adventure non-fiction.

Does your dream holiday involve spending north of fifty grand to risk a fatal aneurysm, walk past the dead bodies of weaker adventurers who’ve come before you and possibly lose your fingers, toes and nose, if not your life? If so, then step right up to climb Mount Everest!

Seriously though, if you’ve ever thought you might like to climb Everest, read this book. If you still want to attempt the highest mountain in the world after finishing Into Thin Air, you are a braver person than I.

This is a masterful account of an adventure-turned-disaster that cost the lives of eight people and scarred (both physically and psychologically) the lucky survivors.

If you've read Joe Simpson’s Touching The Void you have some understanding of the horrors of mountaineering gone wrong. Into Thin Air similarly deals with a climbing catastrophe but with the horrifying struggle consuming an entire group of climbers instead of a lone individual.

Jon Krakauer, a seasoned mountaineer, joined a 1996 expedition to Everest with experienced guides who had reached the mountaintop on numerous occasions with previous groups.

You would think that only the best of the best attempt Everest. The toughest, fittest, most experienced mountain-crazy hardasses out there. Alas, you would be wrong. As Krakauer details, the guides that led people up the mountain often weren’t as picky as they should have been, as theirs is a business like any other, and a need for customers led to many expeditions shepherding weaker sheep up the perilous slopes of the Himalayas.

What follows is a sad tale of bad luck, bad judgement, and many, many massive screw-ups that lead to eight people dying awful deaths in the snow after getting caught in bad weather and simply running out of strength in ‘The Death Zone’ (doesn’t that sound like a fantastic holiday location? The South of France has nothing on Everest) above 8000 meters, where even the strongest person can have unpredictable and fatal reactions to the low air pressure.

Krakauer writes with clarity and humanity, giving us a window seat to how everything goes so wrong, and both the heroism and foolishness that occurs in such trying circumstances. He doesn’t shy away from his own feelings of guilt, and the way that what happened on the upper reaches of Everest has impacted his life.

Into Thin Air is a gripping, terrifying and informative story that taught me more about mountaineering and its risks than any other book I’ve read. It’s an amazing story, both well told and memorable. Read this book, and prepare to shiver in imagined cold as you walk with Krakauer through the middle of a sub-zero high-altitude disaster.

Postscript: I read this book as I headed to Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas. Krakauer discusses in detail the effect that high altitude can have on perception, memory and the ability to focus, and when I stopped at a driveable pass on my trip that reached 5600m I experienced this firsthand. Within minutes I felt nauseous, disassociated from my surroundings, and in need of some serious sleep. How anyone dares to face the perils of altitudes above six kilometres is beyond me. It truly makes one realize the enormity of the challenge and the bravery required to even attempt such a feat. The book not only tells a thrilling adventure story but also makes us reflect on the value of life and the consequences of our actions in extreme situations. It is a must-read for anyone interested in mountaineering, adventure, or simply a good story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

A harrowing account of the Mount Everest Disaster of 1996.

Krakauer's account is concise and anxiety-inducing. He vividly describes the chaos and danger that unfolded on that fateful mountain. The extreme weather conditions, the difficult terrain, and the various challenges faced by the climbers are all detailed in a way that makes the reader feel as if they are right there with them.

To be honest, my biggest takeaway is that you have to be just about insane to willingly attempt something like this. The risks involved are enormous, and the consequences of failure can be fatal. It takes a special kind of person with an almost superhuman level of courage and determination to even consider climbing Mount Everest.

However, despite the many dangers and difficulties, there is something undeniably appealing about the idea of reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain. It represents a challenge that few are willing to take on, and for those who do, the sense of achievement and accomplishment must be truly remarkable.

Overall, Krakauer's account of the Mount Everest Disaster of 1996 is a powerful reminder of the beauty and the danger of nature, and of the human spirit's ability to overcome even the most insurmountable odds.

I read this a few years ago and thought that it was an excellent read.

However, currently, I'm no longer interested in reading books that focus on climbing mountains as a sport.

Taking a hike is one thing, but it's quite another when it comes to the situation described.

But here's what I'll add. What sort of person is capable of hiking up a mountain where they encounter numerous dead bodies, and then, when they witness someone in a dire situation and in desperate need of assistance, they simply walk on by?

I have no desire to get to know such a person.

This kind of behavior seems callous and lacking in basic human compassion.

It makes me question the values and ethics of those who would act in such a way.

Surely, when faced with such a tragic and urgent situation, one should stop and do everything in their power to help.

Otherwise, how can we claim to be decent and caring individuals?

These are the thoughts that come to my mind when I reflect on this story.

It serves as a reminder of the importance of empathy and kindness in our lives.

If you have a penchant for cocky self-centered writing, then perhaps this might just be the thing for you.

Such writing style can be quite captivating for some. It has the ability to draw attention and make a statement.

Those who engage in cocky self-centered writing often do so with confidence and a sense of bravado.

They are not afraid to put themselves in the spotlight and assert their opinions.

However, it's important to note that this style may not be to everyone's taste.

Some may find it overbearing or arrogant.

But for those who appreciate it, it can add a unique flavor to the written word.

It can make the writing stand out and leave a lasting impression.

So, if you're looking to make a bold statement with your writing, give the cocky self-centered style a try.

You might be surprised at the results.

I have never come across a non-fiction book that was as utterly captivating and unputdownable as this one. It was simply impossible for me to set it aside for even a minute. I found myself completely engrossed and finished reading it within just 2 days! I can't recall ever finishing a non-fiction work so quickly. Now, it has firmly established itself as one of my all-time favorites.

I have a passion for travel and an adventurous spirit at heart, although I have never actually engaged in any truly adventurous activities in my life. Perhaps that's why I reallyyyyy adored this book.

The author's attention to detail is truly remarkable. He delves into the lives and backgrounds of each and every member of the various expeditions. By providing precise descriptions of their personalities and mountaineering experiences, he allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of these individuals.

The minute details of the ascent are also presented in a vivid and engaging manner. The book makes one realize just how challenging and dangerous it is to climb Everest. Every obstacle and challenge faced at each stage serves to highlight the enormity of the task.

The author also provides valuable insights into the various illnesses and ailments that can afflict climbers at high altitudes. I was introduced to terms like HACE and HAPE, which were completely new to me.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for the brave men like Rob Hall and Andy Harris, who risked their lives to save Doug. Their selflessness and courage in the face of danger make them true heroes. In contrast, the actions of the Japanese team, who chose not to help, serve to emphasize the heroic nature of Rob and Andy.

The inclusion of the IMAX team's expedition adds another layer of interest to the story. Having watched the IMAX video prior to reading the book, I had a basic understanding of what had happened. However, the author's excellent narration managed to keep me fully engaged, despite my prior knowledge.

The descent is described in such a harrowing and terrifying way that even though I knew the outcome, I couldn't help but hope that fewer lives would be lost.

The author's own personal feelings and experiences add authenticity and weight to the story. His admission of uncertainty and fear, despite having climbed mountains before, serves to illustrate just how perilous the situation was on Everest.

By reading this book, one can easily envision the sheer height of the summit and the difficulties involved in reaching it. It truly brings to life the challenges and risks associated with mountaineering.

In conclusion, I believe that this book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in mountaineering or adventure. It offers a fascinating and gripping account of one of the most challenging and dangerous expeditions in history.

Jon Krakauer's words ring true - "The strongest guides in the world are sometimes powerless to save even their own lives." And "Climbing mountains will never be a safe, predictable, rule-bound enterprise."

Updated (10/31/2012): I watched the movie adaptation the day before yesterday and it was quite good. It closely followed the book, but the book still manages to offer a more detailed and immersive experience. The movie missed out on some of the finer details present in the book, but overall, it was a worthy adaptation.

I can't even begin to fathom how Jon Krakauer managed to pen this story that was published in 2007, just a year after the fateful expedition in May 1996.

During that ill-fated adventure, a staggering nine climbers lost their lives on the majestic yet unforgiving Mount Everest.

Krakauer is an extraordinary journalist and writer. His account of 'this' story was especially captivating as he was an experienced climber himself. He was physically present when the tragedy unfolded.

"Descending from Camp Four after the storm, at a dizzying 25,000 feet, Krakauer turned to look back at the upper reaches of the peak, where his friends Hall, Harris, Hansen, and Fischer had met their untimely ends. Nimba had perished on the South Col, just twenty minutes away from the safety of shelter."

In the author's notes at the conclusion of the book, Krakauer mentions an article he wrote for 'Outside' that ruffled the feathers of several individuals and deeply hurt the friends and relatives of some Everest victims.

He states, "My intention in the magazine piece, and to an even greater extent in this book, was to relay what occurred on the mountain as accurately and honestly as possible, and to do so in a sensitive and respectful manner."

This book is not about apportioning blame - it's about comprehending what happened. Krakauer acknowledges his own errors and points out those of others. For instance, a great deal is said about Anatoli Boukreev's actions on the mountain. (He was the senior guide - the only climber who had previously summited Mt. Everest.) Krakauer lauds many of his heroic deeds.

He also voices genuine concerns he had regarding guided ascents up Everest, the use of oxygen by guides, and the inexperience of those who shelled out $65,000 each to be escorted to the world's highest peak.

I stated in my first sentence - indeed, I couldn't envision how Jon Krakauer wrote this book when he himself was in the thick of a harrowing experience. Laden with feelings of guilt, he retraced his steps to interview other survivors in pursuit of the truth.

BUT.... What I can envision is the uproar that must have ensued when this book first hit the shelves. There were likely ugly accusations of blaming, judging, (negative attacks on Krakauer - perhaps suggesting it was a self-serving money-making ploy), and a plethora of egos believing they knew "more to the story".

People have a propensity to assign blame.....and it's truly a pity!!

This is a tragic tale - real people did their utmost in unforeseen circumstances.

Jon Krakauer did an outstanding job in writing this book --- and I'm truly glad he did.