Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
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 in a desperate struggle 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. 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 eye-witness account of what happened on
the roof of the world is a singular achievement.
