Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-Epilogue

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

Human Ambition

Krakauer explores the mysterious force of human ambition, which drives individuals to want to achieve the seemingly unachievable. Before documenting the specifics of the 1996 Everest disaster, Krakauer explores the history of Everest’s summit attempts. Gunther O. Dyrenfurth, an early Himalayan mountaineer, felt that summiting Everest was “a matter of universal human endeavor, a cause from which there is no withdrawal, whatever losses it may demand” (17). In a similar vein, George Leigh Mallory responds to a journalist's query of why Everest should be climbed—“because it is there” (18). Krakauer draws parallels between these intrepid mountaineers of the early 20th century and his own expedition members, including himself, all of whom are mysteriously drawn to conquer the highest peak in the world. This drive in the human psyche motivates people to endure enormous amounts of discomfort, risk, fear, and pain.

Krakauer admires his fellow climbers, many of whom he had been dubious about due to their mountaineering inexperience, as he watches them persevere through considerable pain: “Above the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition in fact became an almost Calvinistic undertaking. The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountain I’d been on” (140). Krakauer and his fellow climbers on the Adventure Consultants team come to understand that “climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain” (140).

The corpses which litter the slopes of Everest testify to the pitfalls of unchecked ambition. Krakauer reflects that determined climbers are “not distinguished by an excess of prudence” (287). Krakauer suggests that Everest is particularly dangerous because it attracts unusually determined and ambitious individuals; the climbers who attempt Everest are likely to push boundaries if it seems that their goal is within reach (287).

Commercialization of Everest

Traditional alpinists critique the growth of commercial expeditions, which allow less experienced mountaineers to access the summit of the world’s highest peaks with the assistance of guides. Those who deride the commercialization of Everest and other peaks critique wealthy individuals who are able to “buy” a trip to the summit, rather than enduring arduous physical, emotional, and administrative preparation.

Sandy Pittman epitomizes the commercialization of Everest. Able to climb Everest in style because of her personal wealth, Pittman hires others to haul mountains of luxuries and equipment up for her. She is presented as the antithesis of a traditional, independent climber.

Krakauer’s presence on the expedition—where he plans to examine the effects of commercialization on the peak—is, ironically, motivated by Hall’s commercial interests in advertising his company, Adventure Consultants. Hall accepts only $10,000 of his usual fee for Krakauer to join the May 1996 expedition—“the balance would be bartered for expensive ad space in the magazine, which targeted an upscale, adventurous, physically active audience” (71).

Through his expedition, Krakauer comes to increasingly admire his seemingly underprepared and inexperienced counterparts for their determination. He concedes that even being guided up the lower slopes of Everest is an exceptionally demanding climb and believes that those who pay to summit via expeditions haven’t merely paid for an easy route to the top. However, Krakauer ultimately concludes that commercial expeditions are an unwise enterprise and that they lead to death by encouraging inexperienced climbers to attempt a feat which endangers their own lives as well as the lives of others. Krakauer concludes that—due to the poverty of both Nepal and Tibet—it is unlikely that these commercial expeditions to the summit will cease. Krakauer also details the pollution which commercial expeditions have brought to the area, such as the hundreds of discarded oxygen canisters at Camp Four.

The Immense Power of Nature and the Frailty of Man

Krakauer characterizes Everest as immensely spectacular and dangerous. The humans who attempt to summit the peak are powerless compared to the immense vertical drops, the unexpected falling rocks, the plummeting cold, the oxygen-thin air, and the merciless storms. Krakauer cites numerous celebrated mountaineers, all incredibly experienced and well-prepared, who lost their lives on the mountain since the first attempt in 1921.

Krakauer says that the storm on May 10 was not especially significant as far as weather patterns on Everest are concerned; it was in fact “a fairly typical Everest squall” (284). The fact that this was an average storm reminds the reader of the mountain’s enormous danger and its potential to continue claiming lives.

Krakauer celebrates the majesty of the mountain; he almost personifies it, or gives it human qualities. He sees it as seductive and tempting, a siren’s song to those determined to reach its peak. Krakauer draws readers’ attention to religious beliefs that hold Everest as a living being. In doing so, Krakauer frames the tragedy around the question of whether climbers—conceived by many as “arrogant outsiders”—should be attempting the summit at all. While doing so, Krakauer also glorifies the beauty of the mountain, and sympathizes with the temptation which leads so many (including himself) to try to summit Everest. The reader is left to draw their own conclusions but has no doubt of the mountain’s majesty and danger.