Into Thin Air: Part 1 (Pages 1-104)

Jillian Maher

Esprit

3-6-14

Not only did this book make me curious about all the different dangerous summits of Mt.Everest, but it also made me wonder why anyone would even think to climb the highest mountain in the world, knowing how dangerous and difficult it is. Not to mention how much it cost, and how much time you would need to invest in this type of journey. For the first third of Into Thin Air. I read through chapter 7 to page 104.

Throughout this section of the book Krakauer kept talking about all these people who have attempted to climb Mt.Everest but have failed numerous times.  This makes me wonder if you didn't succeeded climbing everest the first time, should you really spend all that time and money again if you're likely to head back early anyways, or worse not come back at all. After all it is the highest mountain in the world standing at 29,029 feet. According to Scholastic over 4,000 people have attempted to climb Mt.Everest, but only 600 of them were successful and about 150 of them died while climbing this extremely painstaking submit. The most common reason people died while trekking on Everest was due to avalanches or not having enough of oxygen tanks. Your brain starts to inflame and swell up if it doesn't get enough oxygen.

                                     

(Mountain Ceremony)

As you can see, this person died while trekking their way up Mt. Everest, there are many ways this person could of died. According to Alpine Ascents, one of the main factors in Everest climbing deaths is excessive fatigue. On the descent, they simply sit down and won't move or become incapacitated by low temperatures, bad weather, or from fatigue. Lying down and resting feels like the right thing to tired climbers, except that the rest becomes the sleep of death.