Into Thin Air: All The Different Mountains (Section 1)

Katherine Podoll

Esprit

For the first third of Into Thin Air, I read through chapter 7, to page 104. Krakauer is constantly referring and comparing the great Everest to other mountains he and other world famous climbers have dared to scale. On page 87, he says, "By 1984, when I went to Switzerland to climb a notoriously dangerous alpine wall called the Eiger Nordwand..." And again on page 97, Krakauer states, "In the spring of 1995, the same team had traveled to Alaska to climb Mount McKinley as a shakedown for the attempt on Everest." These are two examples of the many times Krakauer speaks of other worldly mountains. This got me curious: how do other mountains compare technically and emotionally to the big-hyped Tallest Mountain In The World?

According to Xtreme Sport, Everest, although the highest at 29,029 feet (8,848 meters), is not the most difficult mountain in the world to climb. That award can be argued for many cases. The most common answer is the neighboring K2, the second tallest peak in the world at 28,251 feet (8,611 meters).

                               

K2 is known as the Savage Mountain, and was not summited until 1954. It is said to be both steeper and more challenging on the ice than Everest. Additionally, the weather on K2 is colder and more unpredictable. According to Mental Floss, approximately 280 people have summited K2, and the death rate is a staggering 19.7%. Alanarnette.com adds that Everest has been summited 6,871 times, by 4,042 different climbers. This means that 2,739 climbers, mostly Sherpa, have summited multiple times. Since 1990, the death rate on this mountain has been only a modest 3.6%.

There are many other mountains also known for their harrowing climbs. Kangchenjunga lies in India, the third tallest peak in the world at 28,169 feet; Annapurna is in Central Nepal and has a gut-wrenching, world-highest 41% fatality rate; and Nanga Parbat has the highest mountain face on the planet at 15,000 feet up. All of these mountains boast deadly climbs for even the best in the business, a dare which some people spend their lives looking for and following.

Everest attracts people for different reasons. Although it is not as technically respected as others, it is still an extremely hard climb. Krakauer describes climbing Everest as "a long, tedious process, more like a moth construction project than climbing as I'd previously known it" (pg. 77). Apart from the desire for technical difficulty, Mount Everest has great symbolic value. According to Alpine Ascents International, "Climbing Mt. Everest is the supreme symbol of man's personal struggle to achieve. As a metaphor; Everest is simple and pure, man versus nature, it approaches a universal understanding of our primal desire to conquer and will eternally stand as a symbol for triumph and failure." Mount Everest will ever be revered and thought of as a source of great adventure.