Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

A book with intricate details of the trail up to the Mt. Everest's summit, Jon Krakauer, a "veteran journalist and seasoned climber", tells his own personal account of one of the roughest seasons on the world's highest peak...1996. On the day that the group he was with climbed to the summit, eight people perished. He poses questions of possibly why it happened and also records the majestic points and challenging moments of climbing the amazing Mt. Everest.

I enjoyed, for one, the majestic descriptions of God's creations along the way up the trail to the summit. I think if anything that is the main reason why I liked this novel. I had never seen or heard about what the trail consisted of, so I enjoyed reading about it. Another thing I enjoyed was the stories the author told of the history of Mt. Everest's climbers. The history of the highest mountain on Earth was very intriguing for me. One last thing that I enjoyed from this book is reading about the reasoning of why climbers decide to take on the tallest summits on Earth. It was interesting to read what inspires them to do it. Some of the climbers in the book seem like great individuals...especially the guide of the group the author was in. He seemed to truly care for those members in his group.

The aspect of this novel I did not enjoy was some swearing the author included in the book. Intensity-wise, he includes a swear word at least 4 times that is the worst swear word for me. The other thing you readers need to be aware of with this book is the description...especially in the concluding sections of the book...of the injuries some of the climbers experienced. It's not a very gruesome description, but injuries are discussed like for example extreme frost-bite.

Overall, I would rate this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I especially recommend this book to those who are interested in mountaineering and climbing. 

The goodreads.com summary for this book is:

Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions.