Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air is a firsthand account of the 1996 Mount Everest expedition, which turned out to be a disaster, where eight climbers lost their lives. Krakauer, the author and narrator of the book, was a journalist and a climbing enthusiast who was sent to Everest by Outside Magazine to report on the commercialization of climbing Mount Everest. This book highlights the emotional highs and lows that go into an expedition of this magnitude, and it shows the ins and outs of mountain climbing.
The opening to the book jumps ahead to when the climax is occurring, which engages me to keep reading to get to that point. After that, the start was very slow. The first few chapters explained the backstory to Krakauer’s life, and all the different climbs he did prior to Everest. It then focuses on the Everest expedition and how Krakauer became one of the people who ascended the mountain in 1996.
After the opening, the book starts to get very interesting when it dives into the actual journey. The group had to walk to base camp, which took over a month. On this trip they had to acclimatize to the higher altitudes. They also had to deal with very bad sleeping quarters in many of the stops they made.
Once they arrived at basecamp, they began to ascend up the mountain, making small journeys each day and then going back to basecamp. These journeys got increasingly harder and longer each day, and caused many negative effects due to the high altitude. On the day they finally made a push to reach the summit, disaster struck. A blizzard with heavy wind and snowfall caused eight of the climbers that day, from various expeditions, to lose their lives.
Overall, I thought Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer was very interesting and well written. I think he did a great job explaining what really goes into an expedition of this magnitude for people who don’t understand a lot about mountain climbing. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mountain climbing or anyone who likes a thrilling book that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
