This book, Into Thin Air is an account of a disaster on Mt. Everest where a total of twelve people died on the mountain from a freak storm that diverted almost all rescue attempts. A surviving Seattle journalist, Jon Krakauer, narrates this account of how a supposedly safe situation turned into a desperate struggle for life.
Krakauer came to climb Everest when Outside magazine requested he report on the commercialization of the mountain. He had been a mountain climber since he was a teenager, and had dreamed of climbing Everest his whole life. He knew the risks of climbing a mountain that had taken the lives of more than 130 climbers. But, in his own words, “boyhood dreams die hard… and good sense be damned.” He found a way for the magazine to pay for his trek up the mountain and set off for Kathmandu.
In the beginning, Everest was the realm of only the most experienced mountain climbers. In the more recent years, companies that guide clients up Everest have sprung up. This makes it possible for almost anyone to climb the mountain. Clients must be in good physical condition and pay as much as $65,000 to be guided up the mountain.
Jon joins the guided expedition Adventure Consultants, guided by Rob Hall, Mike Groom, and Andy Harris. The group had a sterling reputation obtained by guiding 39 clients to the summit. They were confident in thinking they could get anyone to the summit. They were experienced and knowledgeable in the ways things are done on Everest. Other groups include Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness expedition, with whom Adventure Consultants had a friendly rivalry for clients.
The Essay on Mountain Walking In The Andes
ter> Assignment title: To write a first person narrative and description account of a holiday based on personal experience (give own title). Dear Pinyot, I couldnt believe that I won the competition! And I was given a chance to travel to any of the destinations they mentioned as tracking rare mountain for gorillas in Uganda, bush walking with guides in Kenya and there were so much more but I ...
Sherpas were a necessary force when it comes to mountain climbing. These natives to the Himalaya set guide ropes and carried heavy equipment to spare the unacclimatized clients and guides the trouble. Each expedition employed eight or so Sherpas to lay the road so that the guides might be able to help the clients.
Most of the time spent on the mountain for Krakauer was spent on acclimatization runs to get the clients used to the unusually thin air on the mountain. There were five camps: Base Camp, Camp One, Camp Two, Camp Three, and Camp Four. About a month was spent running up and down between these camps to get the clients used to the elements. Throughout this time, Krakauer notices that some of his fellow climbers are not the best mountaineers. He learns to trust the guides to help these strugglers. Another observation he makes is that climbing Everest is mostly about enduring pain. The cold and the lack of proper oxygen wreak havoc on a body. Everyone loses weight, since oxygen is required to digest food. Many people come down with piercing headaches or intestinal ailments. Everyone is worried about frostbite and high altitude sicknesses, the latter of which can prove fatal. After this exhausting month, the expeditions make their summit push.
Everything is planned out for the summit push. Krakauer’s group would leave Base Camp on May 6th and make the final push from Camp Four to the summit on May 10th, the most favorable day of the year. Hall lectured the group on the importance of observing the set turn-around time, which in this case was no later than two-o’clock, no matter how close to the summit you were. “With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill,” Hall remarked. “The trick is to get back down alive.”
On May 10th, Adventure Consultants attempts to attain the summit, as planned. Everyone used bottled oxygen, which made it feel like climbing at about 26,000 feet instead of 29,000 feet. The trip doesn’t exactly start off for the best. Sherpas were supposed to go out early and set the lines, but it never happened. This caused a bottleneck that delayed the climbers. Despite this setback, Krakauer reached the top of the world only a bit past 1:00pm.
The Research paper on Base Camp Summit Tent One
Aconcagua, The Stone Sentinel Aconcagua, The Stone Sentinel Essay, Research Paper Aconcagua, the Stone Sentinel Every muscle in my body seemed to relax as I rested for the first time in what felt like a week. It had only been six hours though, and we were only at base camp, 14, 800 feet above sea level. As my head pounded, probably because of the altitude, I had a disturbing thought. We still had ...
Krakauer’s state of mind as he reached the summit was much as it had been over the past three weeks: tired, apprehensive, and deadened. Though he had just reached the top of the world, he “just couldn’t summon the energy to care.” He was concerned by the state of his oxygen tank, which was almost empty. He knows he’s only reached a halfway point.
Krakauer descends fairly quickly and only barely runs into the blizzard that would cause so much trouble for the others. He is safe in his tent at Camp Four by 6:00, weak and exhausted from his trek down.
Others don’t fare as well. A group containing Beidleman and Groom are trapped in the whiteout and aren’t able to find the camp. When they finally locate it, only a few members can walk, so some are left. Another guide eventually came for those left, but two people were left for dead.
Doug Hansen, who had reached the summit around 4:00pm, a full two hours later than the turnaround time, was trapped near the South Summit with Rob Hall. The next day, a rescue attempt was launched, but driven back by high, fierce winds. After almost a day of radio conversation, both men had died trying to come down. Andy Harris died attempting to rescue them.
Fisher was trapped near the Balcony with Lopsang, his Sherpa. He tells Lopsang to go down to camp and get Boukreev, his other guide. Lopsang did as he was told. Fischer was found almost dead by a Sherpa rescue team the same day as Hall’s rescue attempt, but left for dead.
The next day when Krakauer awakes, he is shocked to find that Harris never made it to camp. He specifically saw Harris come into camp, and had told everyone that Harris was all right. He returns to the South Col and sees crampon marks and assumes Harris must have gone over the edge. He later discovers he did not see Harris at all, but Martin Adams, and that Harris attempted a rescue on Hall and Hansen. This compacted with the guilt of not recognizing that Harris needed help near the summit, Krakauer now feels directly responsible for Harris’s death.
The Essay on Camp Hill Riot Inmates Day State
Camp Hill the day that lasted 72 hours On October 25, 1989 more than 1, 300 inmates at the Camp Hill State Correctional Institution rioted. The rioters took at least 8 hostages, lighting 4 fires and caused millions of dollars in damage. More then 35 staff members, 5 inmates, 1 firefighter and 1 state trooper sustain injuries in the worst uprising in Pennsylvania history. Inmates returning from an ...
Beck Weathers, who had been left for dead actually made it to the camp by himself. He is severely frostbitten, but joins the remainder of people descending from the camp. Half as many people were descending as ascending the day before. When they reach Base Camp, the two most severely injured people are evacuated by helicopter. Krakauer now realizes the sheer magnitude of what he’s experienced.
When Krakauer returned home, he wrote the article he was paid to write, but not on his former topic. He wrote to express every detail of what occurred and to answer the unanswerable. This book is and extension of that article. It’s a way to deal with the survivor’s guilt he’s undoubtedly faced. In this way he struggled to find the truth, to let the whole world know what happened on Mt. Everest.
