Review – Into Thin Air

Wow. Just.. wow.

That is not a reflection of the book, per se, but more the subject matter.

Into Thin Air by John Krakauer is the story of his struggle to summit Mount Everest, and the devastating outcome of his journey. (Spoiler alert: there are no spoilers, because this is a true story, based on the 1996 blizzard that claimed 8 lives.)

Deciding to climb the tallest mountain in the world is something I could never fathom, even less so after reading this book. The physical and mental toll it takes is astounding. That said, a small part of me understands why people do it. There are few things in life where you can say ‘I am one of only a handful of people in the known history of the world to have done this’ and be correct (not counting things like collecting 22.1g of belly button lint, or wearing a ‘bee beard’ for just over an hour, because, really, why?).

So, let’s start with some Everest fun facts*!
*I’m not going to provide citations for each of these, because they were all in Krakauer’s book, so I’m trusting him to have done his research.

1. Mount Everest was named for George Everest, who, in fact, never even saw the mountain. He was a general surveyor who had mapped much of the Indian subcontinent.
   • Bonus: George’s name was pronounced ‘Eve-Rest’, not ‘Ever-rest’
   • I actually got this fun fact from a novel I read previously, The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson, but I thought it deserved a place in this post.
2. It costs upwards of $65,000 USD to climb, not counting flights to get there.
3. Climbing Everest generally takes at least 2 months, due to the need to acclimatize to the lower oxygen levels.
   • Even at base camp there is only about 50% of the oxygen compared to sea level
   • 
4. Around 1 in 4 people who attempt to summit Everest do not survive. 1. in. 4. (I believe this number reflects the number of people who actually reach the summit, rather than 25% of the people who venture past base camp dying.)
5. To get to the top, you have to climb past the bodies of those who didn’t make it.
   • Am I the only one to find that horrifying?? It may as well be a neon sign saying Danger Danger don’t go there!
6. Sherpas are amazing. Seriously. They basically do all the heavy lifting, run ahead (as much as one can run while climbing a mountain) and set up ropes and ladders, set up camps, etc. etc. for the teensiest fraction of what a guide is paid.
7. During winter, the average temperature at the top of Everest is -36C.
8. People burn an average of 10,000 calories each day during the ascent. The loss of fat and muscle is yet another challenge to the grueling climb.
9. Due to the mass quantity of garbage littering Everest (upwards of 100 tonnes), climbers are now required to bring a certain amount of garbage back down with them. Most of the garbage consists of empty oxygen tanks, ropes, tents, human waste, etc.
10. Summit attempts aren’t made at random throughout the year. Most take place in May, when the weather is at its best and most predictable. Even in May though, there aren’t people ascending each day; conditions are constantly monitored to determine the best time, resulting in multiple groups trying to reach the summit on the same day. In my mind climbing Everest was a fairly solitary experience, with perhaps a small group of people. In fact, between guides, climbers and sherpas, there were dozens of people on the mountain the day Krakauer reached the summit.
11. Once you’re way up there, you’re pretty much on your own. Yes, there are guided expeditions, and yes, there are people helping you; but should a disaster occur (say, you fall and break both legs), you’re at the mercy or your peers and the mountain. I don’t think this happens often, but a small part of me always thought ‘well, why don’t they just send a helicopter up!’. Apparently I was grossly misinformed about the usefulness of helicopters at that altitude. For anyone who is similarly ignorant, the air is not thick enough way up high for the helicopter to stay in the air.
12. A lot of people get really, really close to the summit, and have to turn around, whether due to weather conditions, lack of oxygen, physical limitations, or timing (most have a set deadline – if you’re not at the top by 1pm (or whatever the set time happens to be), you have to turn back because it won’t be safe to descend).
    • This is basically the most expensive disappointment I can think of. Imagine, spending $65k, work months, pushing your body to extreme limits, only to get so close you can see it, and have to turn around.
    • One of the men in Krakauer’s book was on his second attempt, have previously made it almost to the top. He reached the summit in 1996, but was sadly one of the casualties of that expedition.

The biggest challenge of climbing Everest, to my (wildly uninformed) mind,  is the mental and physical exhaustion, rather than technical climbing skills, and this is what Into Thin Air primarily deals with.

Krakauer goes into detail regarding the conditions along the route from the airport in Kathmandu through to base camp (spoiler alert: a lot of people end up at a disadvantage before they even get to base camp, due to the less than ideal sanity conditions of one of more of the ‘towns’ on the way; adding severe gastro problems to an already difficult journey just seems like a cruel joke). He provides background on his climbing buddies, the guides, the companies. He looks at the Sherpa culture and the effect of Everest as a tourist destination for adrenaline junkies. All of this is done very well. I like his writing, it was detailed and informative, without being boring, and he didn’t go on too many tangents.

I learned so much from this book, about climbing in general, Everest, climbing Everest specifically. But Krakauer also touched on the disaster that was his expedition. Although the survival rate for climbing Everest seems frighteningly low, it is in fact unusual for there to be so many deaths from a single expedition. Most of the people on the mountain that day were very experienced climbers, several of whom had summited Everest at least once, even some who had summited without supplemental oxygen. He takes on the monumental task of attempting to figure out ‘what went wrong’. Because, looking at the basic facts, tragedy should not have struck as it did.

I won’t go into detail, but it seems like anything that could go wrong, did. There was an unexpectedly bad storm. Someone forgot to set up ropes and ladders ahead of time (so time was lost doing this on the day of the summit attempt). Oxygen tanks iced up. Oxygen tanks were misplaced. Timelines were not adhered to. People fell sick or got hurt. Many of these things seem avoidable, but, frankly, when you’re that high up, when you’re getting a third of the oxygen you should be breathing, when the weather is unpredictable and the mountain is a force unto itself, well, there is only so much you can do. No doubt mistakes were made, but any one of them on its own wouldn’t have resulted in such a tragedy.

The book received some criticism regarding how Krakauer portrayed other climbers/guides. While it seemed pretty objective to me, I’ve not read any other works from the expedition (at least one other person on the mountain at that time wrote a book), so I can’t say either way…

Overall, it was a good read. Highly informative, easy to get through, emotional and fascinating. Probably not for everyone, but if you’re an information junkie like me, you’ll probably enjoy. Plus, it’s 100% the closest I will ever get to climbing Mt Everest.