Welcome back blog readers! Today we’re going to discuss Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. This was recommended by the same friend who gave me Shadow Divers, so I was excited for this. The premise is about a group of people who died in the 1996 Everest Disaster, authored by a surviving member of the expedition Jon Krakauer. This was chronicled in the 2015 film Everest, so I was familiar with the story and knew about who died at the end. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Krakauer is an avid mountain climber who is sponsored by his magazine to join Rob Hall’s Everest expedition in the spring of 1996. The book gives a ton of info on the region, and the history or mountaineering in the Himalayas. It was really interesting learning about how much prep goes into climbing this high. I always just assumed that you walked up then walked down. I have spent the last 20 years seeing photos of the crowded summit littered with bodies and trash, I figured it wasn’t a difficult hike just tedious and overcrowded. Shout out the sherpas, almost no one is making it to the top without them hauling gear and making supply runs.
There are several expeditions trying to summit at the same time, and the author gives you some background on all of them. Notably, Scott Fischer’s group is the rival of Rob Hall and is making his first trip guiding people to summit Everest. Another notable group of South Africans were making the trip, Krakauer hated them and made no effort to hide his disdain. They were liars and consistently wouldn’t collaborate with other teams, even not allowing them radio help during the storm that happened later.
It’s a nice story about mountain climbing until the day of the going to the Summit. The teams are broken up, and they get hit with storms while descending the summit. It’s crazy how much the altitude affected the judgement of the climbers. Mistakes compounded, and most were stranded well past their return time. You get Krakauer’s perspective, just a delirious man struggling without oxygen to get back down sagely. No radios, not roped together, it was a disaster.
Rob Hall and Scott Fischer both died working to save others. Hall particularly, was stranded over 24 hours and was radioing his wife to say goodbye. Just heartbreaking stuff. One guy, Beck Weathers, survived after being stranded the whole time. He eventually lost 4 fingers, his nose, and his right arm. Several members of their expeditions perished as 12 total people died between May 10th-May 11th, 1996.
Krakauer is wrought with survivor’s guild. A mistake he made in wrongfully identifying Andy Harris led to the abandonment of his rescue and expedited his death. Krakauer is absolutely not to blame, but saving himself while so many others died is just gut wrenching. He had to write his magazine piece, and immediately got a ton of public backlash and angry comments from the family members of those who died on the expedition.
This was a tragic story. I can’t imagine how Jon Krakauer felt, and I’m glad he wrote this book to set some of the record straight. Were there mistakes made? Sure. But at that altitude, the hypoxic guides did their best to navigate a perfect storm of factors, they just couldn’t do enough. If Hall and Fischer were climbing alone, I have no doubt they would have survived. So many people here sacrificed to save who they could.
I have zero interest in every climbing Everest. The sanitation conditions of Nepal alone would stop me from even making the trip. It just sounds brutal, and it is so much more than just hiking up a hill. This was also a nice contrast to Shadow Divers and reminded me that when you’re too far below or above sea level, your judgement will be severely compromised. Watching the movie took a little bit of the shock out of this for me, but I still enjoyed this and flew through it. My score is 3.5/5.0, definitely worth a read for any fans of the adventure genre. This week I’ll be reading Iron Gold, the start of the follow up trilogy to Red Rising. Looking forward to it and see you next week!
