Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster | 
 enlarge | Author: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: Villard Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1465 reviews
Sales Rank: 24022
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0679457526
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522092
EAN: 9780679457527
ASIN: 0679457526
Publication Date: April 22, 1997
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Amazon.com
Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.
Product Description
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top.No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning, he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn't made it back to their camp and were desperately struggling for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world.A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996.
Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.
Into the Wild is available on audio, read by actor Campbell Scott.
Download Description
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mount Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds.Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed Outside journalist and author of the bestselling Into the Wild. Taking the reader step-by-step from Katmandu to the mountain's deadly pinnacle, Krakauer has us shaking on the edge of our seat. Beyond the terrors of this account, however, he also peers deeply into the myth of the world's tallest mountain. What is it about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense? Written with emotional clarity and supported by unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1460 more reviews...
 My second inside to Jon May 13, 2008
Personally, Jon Krakauer is my all time, hands down favorite author. I am an adventure junkie. This was the second book i ever picked up of his and i seriously could not put it down. I am in college, normally college students have tons of other things to do than read, but i put things off just so i could read this book. I LOVE IT! If you are an adventurist, adrenaline junkie, a climber, a camper, a hiker... read it...
 challenging the impossible can lead to destiny or death May 8, 2008
This story is a page turner which I read in a single night. It's the gripping tale, told in a powerful way of how too many climbers and competing agendas led to a major disaster on Mt. Everest. I saw the story as one of power and control run amuck leading to the loss of too many lives. Of one man who sat down to die, and of another who refused to die even when left for dead three times. The story takes many twists and turns and involves dozens of key characters, so it would be hard to read over too long a period of time since there are a lot of details to track. Never the less, it's a great adventure story that illustrates the dangers of miscommunication at the top of the world.
Good! April 24, 2008
Krakauer doubtlessly is a great story-teller who can keep you engrossed in every detail he delivers at each turn of the story. My only complaint is that he sprinkles difficult vocabulary not only without any added effect, but clunkily, making certain words stand out from the rest of his prose. Take, for example, the following sentence:
"Now, four days later, Nukita warned us that a similarly PREDACIOUS swarm of print and television reporters lay in wait for us..." (280, emphasis added)
Um... why not just "predatory"? Is it just me, or is the word "predacious" as common a word as "predatory"?
Or take another sentence:
"But such moments were tempered by the long PENUMBRA cast by Everest..." (282, emphasis added)
Again, why not infinitely more understandable and easy-to-imagine "SHADOW"? Why "PENUMBRA"? Why go so poetic and abstract all of a sudden? I was literally thrown off balance when I came across the word in midsentence because it's so out of place. Besides, it hazards leaving the reader wondering what the word means rather than sympathizing with the author's plight. My complaint is based on the fairly commonsensical belief that when a word is not adding anything - whether it be impact, image, style, etc. - it should be ruthlessly cut and/or replaced with another. PENUMBRA seems to fall pat into this sort of instance. Unfortunately, I didn't keep detailed note of every instance in which the author slipped in flashy words tragically to the detriment of his own otherwise lucid prose, I can't say for certain how often he did it, but as far as i remember, there were numerous similar occasions where I thought the word he chose was definitely working against his writing.
But my quibbling ends here and I only have kudos for the book. It's an awesome adventure story about people with astounding willpower under the worst and extremest of environmental conditions imaginable. Highly recommended.
 Another book to miss by Mr. Krakauer April 21, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
As with his other ode to ego versus nature, "Into the Wild", Mr. Krakauer makes it clear with "Into Thin Air" that nature is best seen as a test bed for the elite and ego inflamed to examine their will and inner mettle or, um, die. As a result "Into Thin Air" leaves the old school of respectable and fearful examination of man living WITH nature (see the books of Ernest Seton among many others as an example) into a new school of nature writing dedicated to exploring the various ways a man or woman must overcome nature or perish in the attempt. Which, let's face it, is just plain silly. There is very little to recommend in this viewpoint, it is narcissistic and sophomoric and ultimately degrading to both nature and man; so goes the book, and for that matter, so goes the Nepal Everest base camp, which has become, at my last visit, an open dump/sewer.
If you really must read about the dangers of Mt. Everest, you are much, much better off reading "Mountain without Mercy" by B. Coburn, T. Cahill and D. Breashers. Better yet, pick up the book In Highest Nepal; Our Life Among the Sherpas by Norman Hardie. Norman doesn't conquer Mt. Everest or even care to, in fact he never even attempts the summit. Instead he lives among the Sherpa and discovers the various means they've discovered to live with the most extreme that nature has to offer. Which, in my view, is what nature writing should be about.
Pure Genius April 18, 2008
When I was very young, I believed my purpose in life was to climb Mount Everest. I was fascinated by the idea of hiking through the snow and eventually reaching the highest piece of land on earth. Walking to school, I would imagine myself climbing the mountain. Every road I crossed was a vast crevasse, thousands of feet deep. But, like most childhood dreams, I eventually grew out of it. So, Recently when I saw a book captioned: "The Mount Everest Disaster," the old ashes were rekindled and I naturally had to read it.
Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer's recollection of the "Mount Everest Disaster," as the cover phrases it. He gives background information of every climber on his team as well as general facts about Mount Everest and climbing itself. Krakauer's style is excellent, and afterwards it feels as if you were there on the mountain beside him.
The book was a little slow at the beginning, unfortunately. Maybe it was the fact that none of the names meant anything to me, or the fact that everything is described in great detail, sometimes seeming very long and drawn out. Eventually I got used to it, and it ultimately was necessary for understanding all of the character's actions later on. One great aspect of the book is that Krakauer names who died right off the bat. Not only did that make me immediately interested, but it also became nerve wracking later in the book, knowing which characters were destined to never return home.
Krakauer is a born storyteller. Most storytellers do just that. They tell stories. But unlike most storytellers, Krakauer had his own story to tell. It was a life-changing story at that. Many authors could have barely made up such a great tale out of thin air, but this actually happened. That is the most haunting fact of the story, it is true.
Regardless if you like climbing, hiking, or snow, this is a great book. Even if reading isn't enjoyable, this book is. In short, this is the best book I have read in a very long time.
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