Into Thin Air

John Krakauer

The author is sent by Outside magazine to evaluate the growing business of guide companies offering inexperienced (or non-experienced) climbers the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest for about $70,000 each. Krakauer is an experienced climber, though by his own admission he was probably not fully prepared for Everest.

While Krakauer summitted successfully, the next few hours saw drastic changes in the weather that resulted in the death of five climbers and injuries to several others. The tales of climbers lost within easy walking distance of camp and of others dying near the summit while in radio communication with camp are both horrifying and fascinating.

Perhaps the most disturbing story was of a climber who had gotten lost near the camp and was caught in heavy snow and wind. The next morning, a search party located the man; barely conscious and near death. Due to many circumstances the party was forced to leave the man to die -- to do otherwise would have been unlikely to have saved the man and would have risked the lives of the rest of the party.

Several hours later as the team was getting ready to leave camp, a figure comes staggering out of the distance. Upon closer examination (they had to chip the ice off his face to identify him) the climbers discover that this was none other than the man they had left to die twelve hours before! (He fully recovered from this experience, though others lost with him did not.)

It was interesting to have read this book during the 1997 climbing season. As I followed the climbers through reports on the Internet, many of the names were familiar. The 1997 teams found the bodies of those lost in 1996.

This is an excellent and disturbing book. I found it hard to put down.