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Title details for Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - Wait list

Into Thin Air

A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

by Jon Krakauer
Philip Franklin
Audiobook
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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 desperately struggling 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.
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world.  A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996.
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 eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.
Into the Wild is available on audio, read by actor Campbell Scott.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 7, 1997

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593454305
      • File size: 262788 KB
      • Duration: 09:07:28

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1320
    • Text Difficulty: 10-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Krakauer's first-person account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster is full of guilt, grief, finger-pointing, heroism and indictments of commercial mountaineering. As a journalist, he was supposed to be objective; as a participant, he couldn't be. Reader Franklin wisely avoids letting too much of Krakauer the climber come through, focusing instead on the powerful narrative. No added dramatics are needed for the listener to imagine the high-altitude cold, fear, bravado and sense of total isolation felt by all who were trapped beyond help, as well as by those who survived. Franklin's emulations of the multinational voices of guides, clients and Sherpas bring one still closer to the action. Even with all the quotes, notes and factual information included, the unabridged audio production is every bit as engrossing as the book. J.B.G. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 21, 1997
      What set out to be a magazine article on top-of-the-line tours that promise safe ascents of Mt. Everest to amateur climbers has become a gripping story of a 1996 expedition gone awry and of the ensuing disaster that killed two top guides, a sherpa and several clients. "Climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain," writes Krakauer (Into the Wild). "And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering... most of us were probably seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace." High-altitude climbers are an eccentric breed--Olympian idealists, dreamers, consummate sportsmen, egomaniacs and thrill-seekers. Excerpts from the writings of several of the best-known of them, including Sir Edmund Hillary, kick off Krakauer's intense reports on each leg of the ill-fated expedition. His own descriptions of the splendid landscape are exhilarating. Survival on Mt. Everest in the "Dead Zone" above 25,000 feet demands incredible self-reliance, responsible guides, supplemental oxygen and ideal weather conditions. The margin of error is nil and marketplace priorities can lead to disaster; and so Krakauer criticizes the commercialization of mountaineering. But while his reports of guides' bad judgments are disturbing, they evoke in him and in the reader more compassion than wrath, for, in the Dead Zone, experts lose their wits nearly as easily as novices. The intensity of the tragedy is haunting, and Krakauer's graphic writing drives it home: one survivor's face "was hideously swollen; splotches of deep, ink-black frostbite covered his nose and cheeks." On the sacred mountain Sagarmatha, the Nepalese name for Everest, the frozen corpses of fallen climbers spot the windswept routes; they will never be buried, but in this superb adventure tale they have found a fitting monument. Author tour.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The tragic events on Mt. Everest in May of 1996 have been in the media in numerous forms for more than a year. With Krakauer's firsthand account of the ill-fated expeditions solidly on the bestseller lists, the audiobook version has particular appeal. Hearing the author recount the daily events in journal-like entries allows listeners a unique connection to the unfolding catastrophe. However, the author's flat rendition does little to enhance the riveting events. His animation with comments and snatches of conversation is the only break in the sense of inevitability projected in his tone. Nevertheless, the audiobook is unstoppable listening simply because of the drama of the events, and turning off the tape is somehow akin to leaving your companions on the frigid slopes, as some members of these expeditions actually did. Hearing Krakauer discuss the decisions and dynamics of the expeditions gives listeners an unusual connection to the disturbing questions he asks. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1320
  • Text Difficulty:10-12

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