BOOKS
Into
Thin Air:A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
by
Author Jon
Krakauer
Hardcover
| 293 Pages | ISBN 0679457526
Published in January 1997 by Random House of Canada, Limited
Synopsis:
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the
early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in
fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering
effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long,
dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers
were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had
noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six
hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and
blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing,
hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The
following morning he learned that six of his fellow climbers
hadn't made it back to their camp and were in a desperate
struggle for their lives. When the storm finally passed,
five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly
frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.
Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has
compelled so many people - including himself - to throw
caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and
willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and
expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his
unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eye-witness account of
what happened on the roof of the world is a singular
achievement. |
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