Dana Reyes★ Contributor · Lv 4
todayI read it in one sitting with my stomach in knots. Krakauer's honesty about his own role guts you.
Nonfiction
Into Thin Air
by Jon Krakauer
4.7· 1,977 ratings
Published 1996335 pagesEnglishGripping · Harrowing
Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics, and others with a shaky hold on reality.
Why read it
A journalist reaches the summit of Everest and then watches a sudden storm turn the descent into a fight for survival that will kill some of the people who climbed beside him.
The big idea
Krakauer's firsthand account of the 1996 Everest disaster reconstructs how a commercial expedition unraveled near the top of the world. It is both a gripping survival narrative and a hard examination of ambition, commercialization, and the fatal decisions made where the air is too thin to think.
The story behind it
Krakauer was on assignment for Outside magazine when the disaster struck; he expanded his article into the 1997 book, which became a massive bestseller. It drew both acclaim and controversy, including disputes with survivor Anatoli Boukreev over accounts of that day.
What you’ll take away
- 01
The commercialization of Everest
Paying clients with limited experience reveal the dangers of guiding the mountain for money.
- 02
Decisions in the death zone
Oxygen starvation and exhaustion corrode the judgment climbers most need near the summit.
- 03
The turnaround time
Ignored deadlines for turning back become a central, fatal failure of the expedition.
- 04
Survivor's reckoning
Krakauer interrogates his own actions and memory rather than absolving himself.
From the book
Guide Rob Hall, stranded near the summit and unable to descend, speaks by radio to his pregnant wife in New Zealand before he dies.
Climber Beck Weathers, left for dead in the storm, revives and staggers back into camp, blinded and frostbitten, in a scene no one expected.
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