Into Thin Air

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Summary: Don't mistake Krakauer's opinions for fact
Review: This is an enthralling book, I couldn't put it down. I did not have much interest in mountaineering (either doing or reading about) but since reading Into Thin Air I have read every other book I could find about the deaths on Everest in '96. The difference in perspectives from the different authors is amazing. If you are reading Into Thin Air you should remember that Krakauer has not written objectively, he is telling his own story. His opinions reflect badly on Anatoli Boukreev, who was a guide on Scott Fischer's expidition. The impression I was left with after reading books by Boukreev, Michael Groom and Lene Gammelgaard (probably spelt wrong there) was that if there was a hero on Everest in 1996 it was Anatoli Boukreev

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Summary: Riveting!! A Great Read Even If You're Not a Mountaineer!
Review: A great yet tragic story, made all the more riveting by the fact that it is true. Hollywood writers could not come up with anything more compelling. Even for those of us that are not into mountain climbing, the book offers a look into the people's minds who pursue such ventures. It also raises the question of whether someone should have extensive experience to climb, or that the only qualification to undertake an assault on Everest should be a fat wallet. Krakauer pulls no punches in his opinions of others on the mountain that fateful trip.

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Summary: wow
Review: This book was so descriptive I was cold everytime I sat down to read it. I think Jon was very one sided on his opinions on the actions of others during this tragedy and harsh in his judgements however he is amazingly descriptive on what they went through up there.

I read this book getting ready for a marathon--it didn't seem hard after comparing it to Everest.

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Summary: Gripping! Spend the extra $$ and buy the illustrated version
Review: Everyone reviewing this book has nailed it -- this is the most gripping, harrowing true story you'll ever read and it's a definite buy. The only thing I'd like to add is to say that if you can afford the extra cash for the hardcover illustrated edition, GO FOR IT. (white cover, 40 bucks versus 8 for the paperback) The illustrated edition contains over 250 photos, as compared to approx. 20 for the paperback. In addition to breathtaking landscape shots, the illustrated edition contains many intimate snapshots of the expedition team eating, conversing, climbing, etc. It makes whole account that much more personal. I read the paperback version in 2 or 3 sittings -- I'm definitely not a habitual reader, it's just that compelling -- and I just received the illustrated version as a gift. Of course I'm rereading the book just to give the new photos some context! That's my 2 cents.

Rating:
Summary: Into Thin Air
Review: I was recently on my way to California where I was to race a Porsche in a 12 Hour Endurance race. I picked up a copy of the book at one of those airport bookstores. On the airplane I started the book and could not put the thing down. Krakauer brings into focus the unbelievable conditions on Everest and the human sacrifice that goes into such and endeavour. I could only imagine what it must be like to be so alone and self dependent in such extreme conditions. A masterful recounting of an actual event and the emotions that are experienced. WOW! I was so impressed I enrolled in a mountain climbing school. I want to experience just a part of what surely must be one of the more unique experiences of ones life. After reading this book it makes racing cars seem pretty mundane.

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Summary: real and raw
Review: I am not a mountain person. I am from the flat land and never understood why people voluntarily venture above 26000 ft to catch lung oedemas and brain swelling at best. I had no pity for Beck Wheaters who was left for dead twice by his mountaineering friends and who recently told his story in a book, on TV and every major newspaper of the country. To a certain degree I also don't understand some of Krakauer's own motivations. All of that said, I still believe that his account of the 1996 Everest desaster is an excellent book and a must-read. He delivers insights into the extreme-climbers psyche and answered a lot of questions about the sport (if one can call it that way) I have had for years. Krakauer is an OK, but not outstanding writer, yet his tale is so harrowing and stunning at the same time that the book becomes a typical all-nighter. Some of the characters evoked extreme anger and disbelief in me, only few come across as sympathetic. Krakauer does not pretend to be unbiased about the whole tragic affair and he makes that clear several times in the book. In light of that the harsh criticism he received, especially from friends and family of some of the lost climbers, appear understandable but too strong. Considering what the author himself went through in the thin air, his detailed memory and overall balanced account of the events of 1996 are amazing.

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Summary: Excellent
Review: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakaur is a book that anyone can read and walk away having learned something. This was a book that I was not planning to read at first, not being too much of the reading type. Then I found myself flipping through it and ended up reading the book. This was one of the first books that I could not wait to see what would happen next. I always had known the dangers of mountain climbing, but before this book I had never know to the full extent what a mountain can do to a person. From reading this book I learned why people go off risking life and limb to climb a mountain and what happens once on the mountain. As I was reading, I learned that above 25,000 feet was called the death zone, and thought that I would be encouraged it I had known that climbing the mountain. But also from reading from climbing too fast fluid can fill your lungs and you would suffocate in your own body. You would also need or heavily depend on bottled oxygen in order to know what you were doing at such high altitudes. Choices made by the climbers also shocked me as I was reading, for what one person did could get their whole expedition killed. Other things that crossed my mind while reading this was why would someone hold down two jobs to experience the exhaustion, oxygen deprivation, and torture themselves to get to as high as they were on flying to Everest. Jon Krakaur explains all of this in and throughout his novel of his first person account of the deadliest expedition in history.

In this book, Jon Krakaur takes you each step of the journey, so you know how he felt all the way to the summit and back. He explains all the details of wheat went horribly wrong that day on Everest and how the lives could have been saved. Within all the story of death, a story of determination comes out with one climber not willing to give into death after being abandoned twice. Jon Krakaur come back with a story that everyone should know and think about.

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Summary: A good first read of the May, 1996, disaster
Review: Briefly, Krakauer's account of the events is no doubt accurate, but in spite of the quality fo the actual writing, the analyses and conclusions drawn leave something missing. Perhaps Krakauer's own judgment was simply altered on the mountain, as well, preventing a completely clear view of the events.

Krakauer's observations don't always jive with those of the other climbers on his and other expeditions, and after re-reading the book recently, I feel Krakauer himself wasn't in position at the right time to justify the conculsions he makes.

Nonetheless, a good read, but only in conjunction with other books on the same issue. Boukreev's "The Climb" is a far better account, and serves as an excellent follow-up to "Into Thin Air".

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Summary: Tragic
Review: Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is an incredibly brutal and honest recollection of the events that led to tragedy on Mount Everest in May 1996. With an unflinching eye, Krakauer relates the brashness of inexperienced climbers, the ambivalence of underpaid Sherpas, and the blind ambition of the over-aggressive guides, hungry to make a name for themselves and corner a piece of a market that caters to the rich and inexperienced climber.

Mountain climbing, we learn, is no longer a sport of determination, of man against nature, but rather the sport nouveau for the rich and bored. It seems that anyone with enough cash can hire a team of professionals, much like Rob Hall's Adventure Consultants or Scott Fischer's Mountain Madness teams, to literally drag them up a mountain.

There are a number of factors that led to the disaster on Everest on May 10-11, 1996, and Krakauer is infallible in his attempt to uncover them all. He blames no one and at the same time blames everyone.

In his attempt to expose the truth and to lay some questions to rest, Krakauer bravely opens himself to criticism from survivors and families of the victims, which he addresses.

It is impossible to read this book and not feel shock and regret for everyone involved.

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Summary: A Towering Memoir of Everest
Review: Reporter Jon Krakauer took an assignment from Outside magazine to write a piece on the guided expeditions up Mount Everest being offered by experienced climbers. A climber himself (albeit one with no high-altitude experience), who had long dreamed of scaling Everest, Krakauer joined a tour led by the New Zealand climber Rob Hall. He made it to the summit only minutes before an unexpected blizzard struck the mountain. Hall's wasn't the only group on Everest, and before the storm was over, he and nine other climbers had died.

"Into Thin Air," an expansion of the 17,000-word piece Krakauer wound up writing for Outside, is Krakauer's first-person account. It is also the realization of a man who has gone as far as he could in pursuit of a habit that almost killed him.

Krakauer says that writer friends urged him to get some perspective on the experience before writing this book. He couldn't, he said, because it "was gnawing my guts out." Though "Into Thin Air" came less than a year after that trip, it didn't weaken Krakauer's reporting skills. He's scrupulously fair and honest about his co-climbers and guides. He records acts of selfishness and foolishness as well as acts of bravery, sometimes all from the same person.

Mr. Krakauer writes indelibly, agonizingly, on the physical torment of existing, let alone exerting yourself, at high altitude. He's brilliant on the particular brand of masochistic asceticism that drives mountain climbers. He doesn't take the easy position that only experienced climbers should be allowed on Everest; he knows that anyone has to be slightly crazy to attempt it.

Describing a hike he took to accustom himself to the higher climate, he writes, "There, at the head of the Cwm [pronounced koom] ... I came upon (a) body in the snow, or more accurately the lower half of a body. The style of the clothing and the vintage leather boots suggested that ... the corpse has lain on the mountain for at least ten or fifteen years ... the shock ... wore off almost immediately... It was as if there were an unspoken agreement ... none of us dared acknowledge what was at stake here."

It's the highest praise I can give "Into Thin Air" that Krakauer has faced without self-protection what, finally, was at stake. His story contains what must be one of the essences of hell: the unceasing potential for things to become worse than you fear.

Staying up half the night to finish "Into the Air," I spent the other half trying to push it out of my mind. I don't even want to think about what Jon Krakauer sees when he closes his eyes.