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

This story is insane, and true. The author went on a guided expedition to summit Mt Everest in 1996 and this is the story of what happened. A normal expedition ended in disaster, though this is basically par for the course as death and distress are completely normal occurrences at 29k feet.

I enjoyed how the author weaved in the history of climbing Everest with his story. It was fascinating to learn about all that goes in to the actual climb as it wasn’t something I had much knowledge of. It’s absolutely unreal the things these climbers go through to climb this mountain.

The only downside of the book is that there are dozens of people introduced and I had trouble keeping track of who was who. I know this is unavoidable as it’s a true story and there were a lot of players involved, but just something to be aware of.

Definitely would recommend reading this and I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

spritefiend's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

ejoynton's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

fictiojuris's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional medium-paced

cutiejoy's review against another edition

4.5

“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 mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace.”

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