Reviews

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

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_jacket_oil_'s review against another edition

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sad tense fast-paced

4.0

devyn_everts's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

mtstellens's review against another edition

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4.0

This was the last major Krakaur book I had left to read, I’m a bit sad about that, but I think I saved a good one for last.
I understand the criticism of this book, any nonfiction whose author is right in the middle of it ought to be criticized for potential bias. And it’s not hard to find criticism of this book based on that. It’s clear that Krakaur has been traumatized by this experience and lays blame on himself and the other professionals that were there. And they do deserve some blame. I tend to default to ‘you never know what decisions you’ll make or how you will react in traumatic and stressful situations’ but when you are a professional that has other people relying on you to survive, you have been trained to react in ways that should keep you and others alive. If you can’t, don’t do this job. But there were clear omissions that have been left out because, in my opinion, it would take away from Krakaur’s authority. Like in the case that they knew the weather going into the climb, they knew that there was going to be a storm. So why did they attempt the climb at all? And if Keakaur know enough about mountaineering to judge the choices of others, why would he go along with the climb in those potential conditions.
He does make very good points about the commercialization of Everest and the costs of that, both human (usually sherpas) and ecological. The personal experience of this tragedy helped emphasize that point, that this is an industry, one that thrives on people thinking that paying such high amounts will guarantee them safety. It, as all his books, is well written and kept me turning the page.
I recommend this with the caveat of reading the criticism and using that to pick out what you should take away from the book.