The ultimate physical challenge...

I tried to read Jon Krakauer's 1997 book Into Thin Air when it was still pretty new on the shelves. For some reason, the first time I tried to read Into Thin Air, I was unable to get into it and put it aside. I recently decided to try again after I read Krakauer's Under The Banner of Heaven. I'm glad I made the effort. Into Thin Air is a riveting personal account of Krakauer's once in a lifetime trip up Mount Everest and the tragedy that ultimately befell Krakauer's group.

But first thing's first. Climbing Mount Everest is not exactly the kind of decision one makes on a whim, especially considering the cost and danger of such an expedition. Krakauer came to climb the largest mountain in the world when he pitched the idea to Outside magazine back in 1996. Krakauer notes that it costs many thousands of dollars to take a guided trip up Mount Everest. Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants, the doomed man who led Krakauer's group up the mountain, charged $65,000 for his services. The magazine worked out a deal for Krakauer and off he went to Katmandu, Nepal to embark on the trip of a lifetime.

Krakauer focuses on two groups in Into Thin Air, his own group, led by New Zealander Rob Hall, and one led by American Scott Fischer of Mountain Madness. Using vivid language, Krakauer writes about the many preparations he and his colleagues made for the trip in the spring of 1996. I got a good sense of the people who came along on Krakauer's trip, including a couple of people whom Krakauer didn't like at first. Krakauer also makes it clear that some of the people on the trip up Everest were there simply because they had the money to go. They neither had the physical stamina nor the mountaineering skills to be successful on such a demanding climb.

At times, Krakauer's attitude seemed almost elitist, until I considered just how huge Mount Everest is. Stretching 29,028 feet into the air, the mountain is enormous. The vast majority of people attempting to climb Mount Everest require oxygen in order to make the trip. Under the best of circumstances-- that is, if the weather is perfect-- trying to climb Mount Everest is an extremely risky endeavor fraught with physical hardships. When Krakauer explains how he felt physically and mentally as the atmosphere thinned, I was able to imagine it myself. When he describes the physical conditions of some of his comrades, I was able to picture it in my mind... the image of a man whose eye was frozen shut and whose face was covered with an "armor" of ice... a woman who was practically frozen to the mountain with grape sized pieces of ice frozen in her hair... a man whose extremities were so frostbitten that he later had to undergo amputation. It's gripping stuff that really drives home the magnitude of what people who decide to climb Mount Everest face.

Just like climbing Mount Everest, reading this book is a labor intensive task. Krakauer doesn't skimp on the details of his experience. He divides chapters by his progress, listing his location and the number of feet above sea level with each new section. Although I found reading Into Thin Air an extremely interesting endeavor, I found that my progress was slow. It's not an easy book to read, although I did find it hard to put down. There are a few pictures included in the center of the book, including an eerie photograph of Everest's upper slopes, where several members of the expedition, including the trip leader, perished during a storm. The book reaches its climax toward the end of the book, with Krakauer describing how he felt when he finally reached the summit on May 10, 1996. He was lucky enough to escape the calamity that struck eight of his colleagues, who reached the summit hours after Krakauer did. At times, as I read Into Thin Air, I got the sense that Krakauer was experiencing significant survivor's guilt as, out of necessity, some of his party were left on the mountain for dead.

Krakauer stresses that climbing Mount Everest is not a thrill sport. He writes that he didn't get the rush he might find skydiving or skiing down a mountain. In fact, I got the sense that climbing Mount Everest was an arduous task that didn't particularly offer the rewards that Krakauer expected. What's more, he writes about how dirty the mountain is, as people have climbed it over the years and left their garbage behind. The governments of Tibet and Nepal have made strides in cleaning up Mount Everest through anti-litter programs and by jacking up the prices of government permits. Still, I find it sad that even in a place as remote as Mount Everest, human beings leave their marks with pollution.

I don't know much about mountain climbing. I knew even less about it before I read Into Thin Air. I did once climb a mountain, back when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia. My friends and I ascended one of the four peaks of Aragats, which is the largest mountain in Armenia. It was an exhausting task, but the things I remember most about that experience were how physically challenging it was to climb the mountain and the amazing views I took in as I climbed higher and higher and grew more and more exhausted. I also remember thinking that while I was glad I had climbed the mountain, it wasn't something that I ever wanted to do again. Making that determination makes me feel a bit wimpy, especially since one young Armenian woman who climbed the mountain that day did so in high heels!

Although remembering my own mountaineering experience and reading about Krakauer's harrowing ordeal is enough to make me not want to become an outdoorsy type, I still think Into Thin Air is a very worthy read for anyone who likes true adventure stories. I admire Krakauer for his ability to climb Mount Everest, as well as his willingness to share his story with the rest of the world. I'm sure writing this book took quite an emotional toll. Indeed, at the end of Into Thin Air, Krakauer includes some of the mail he got after he published his article in Outside magazine. Some of the letters he received were not very pleasant at all, particularly from the relatives of the people who lost their lives on Krakauer's expedition. What's more, Into Thin Air is not without controversy. It has been refuted by Anatoli Boukreev, another guide, who wrote The Climb, his own book about the disaster. Still, I definitely think it's worth a read. For now, I think reading Into Thin Air is as close as I'll ever get to climbing another mountain. I'm grateful to Jon Krakauer for the vicarious trip.