Into Thin Air, Tragedy and Helplessness Strike

Nearing the end of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer continued to develop an increasingly vexatious telling of the events that were unfolding on Mt. Everest. I found myself swaying and cringing with every detail of the book. Throughout the last third of the book, as Jon and the rest of the climbers began to ascend Everest even further, more dangerous situations begin to arise and inspire more skepticism within the climbers, but at the same time, encourage them further to push on and accomplish what they have been striving for. "... I only wish I could have gotten more clients to the top"(195).  Remarked Rob Hall on his way up to the summit. It seemed that although the obvious goal was to reach the summit of Everest, there were many hidden challenges that each individual went through and discovered throughout their trying journey. Yes, there were tragedies and the horrible feeling of helplessness as Krakauer watched the capable people he set out with to endure this peregrination with dwindle in numbers and hope. But, those who did arise on the other side of the expedition came out stronger more knowing people, making up for those who were lost. "Everest seems to have poisoned many lives. Relationships have foundered" (299). Many would say that the tone of this book is a very grim and tragic one, but on the flip side to all this loss, regret, and pain that has been had and made from this mountain, something else can rise from that. The ones who have survived that great feat of scaling Mt Everest and living to tell about it can benefit not only themselves, but others as well; "It took a few months in my case for the positive aspects to begin to develop. But they have. Everest was the worst experience in mu life. But that was then. Now is now. I'm focusing on the positive. I learned some important things about life, others, and myself. I feel I now have a clearer perspective on life. I see things today as I never saw them before"(295). There will always be controversy over this expedition and the outcome of it, but one thing is for sure, the world will never look at Everest the same way again.

All in all this book was an interesting read, the author, Jon Krakauer, is actually the author of my favorite book, Into The Wild, so that connection may have swayed my initial apprehension to put the book down and not read it in the beginning. The book started out slightly slowly and confusingly, but as it progressed and the characters developed, along with the author and it became hard to put down. Especially towards the end of the book, when Jon and his team started encountering many obstacles and Krakauer had to do investigative work to figure out what had actually happened during their time on the mountain, that made the book really engaging for me.