Q2 Post 7

In chapters 13 and 14, the team does their final section of the journey to the top of the mountain. A lot of the team members are feeling sick from lack of oxygen and from the high altitude. They enter one of the deadliest parts of the climb, and area called the Death Zone. It's almost the last push before the summit, and normally people's oxygen runs out if they don't do it quickly. The climber has to be focused on that part. Several of the team members decide to turn around at this point because they don't have enough oxygen. They have to make the decision themselves if they are well enough to summit. Often a climber can be blinded by the fact that they are so close to the top, they ignore their body and go anyway. These decisions have led to death on Everest before. Later, Krakauer reaches the summit, but turns back right away. When Krakauer returns back down the mountain, he comes across a friend at the top of the traffic-jammed Hillary Step. He has his friend turn down the oxygen flow on his tank so he saves more. His friend accidentally opens the tank more so Krakauer gets too much oxygen and is wasting it. I think that in situations like that, when everyone is a little delusional I would've been more careful and protective of my oxygen supply than Krakauer. In these chapters, Krakauer indirectly explains to us how vital oxygen is. Most people don't even think about it or even notice it. On the mountain, it is the most important factor in determining the climber's survival. 

Q2 Post 6

In chapter 11 of Into Thin Air, the group does thier final attempt at reaching the top of Everest. On their way up they pass a climber from Sweden who is decending the mountain. The climber, Goran Kropp, almost summited, but decided he was too tired and it was likly he could've died if he tried. Kropp came within a couple hundred feet of the top when he decided to turn around. He could even see the top and made that decision. I believe the type of people who can make that type of decision are hard to come by these days. Most people would've thrown caution to the wind and gone for summit anyway. For most people it's too hard to give up a chance like that one. They wouldn't care about the consequences and go for it anyway. I think this is especially true in America. Americans don't seem to be very rational in realtion to the rest of the world. This is true because of how fortunate most Americans are, relative to the world. Life here is always easier, and safer, and a very stable and supportive government that makes many Americans feel secure. I hope that Americans can stop thinking and living this way, but still have the great quality of living that America provides.

Q2 Post 5

In Chapters 9 and 10 of Into Thin Air, Krakauer's team continues with their acclimatization by climing from Camp 2 to Camp 3. Krakauer is feeling terrible the entire time, and so is Doug Hansen, suffering from things like frostbite and migranes. To me, it seems impossible that someone would want to climb the mountain with those symptoms, even if its just to do their acclimitization. I know they have to in order to climb the mountain, but it still seems that they would turn back if someone had the types of symptoms Krakauer and Hansen had. Later on on their acclimitization trip, the weather becomes bad, and they have to turn back. May of them got frostbite, and Hansen got an infection in his lung, so he thinks he is going to have to go home. Again. After the last time coming within a couple hundred feet of the top, now he has to turn back. THese events would really turn down the morale of the team, and I can't imagine continuing the climb after these events.

Romatosky, Becky. "Pirates." http://www.omw.mit.edu/. 13 May 2002. 8 Dec. 2008.

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21w/21w.731-3/cultureshock/becky_1.htm

Bibliography post 1

Burke, Jack. "Argh: Pirating Music isn't Bad." http://www.sjuhawknews.com/ 23 Apr. 2008. 8 Dec. 2008.

http://media.www.sjuhawknews.com/media/storage/paper763/news/2008/04/23/Opinion/Argh-Pirating.Music.Isnt.Bad-3341137.shtml

Q2 post 4

For post 4 I read chapters seven and eight of Into Thin Air. In this section the author talks about inexperience in the other teams climbers at base camp, such as the teams from South Africa, Taiwan and a solo Norwegian climber. He thinks that these groups are foolish and will probably get into trouble high on the mountain and that his group will have to go save them and ruin their opportunity of reaching the top.  Rob Hall also agrees with him and says, "I think it's pretty unlikely that we'll get through this season without something bad happening up high." (p. 100).  If I didn't know how the book ended, then I would see this as some major foreshadowing, which is another reason why I find Krakauer's journalistic style of writing annoying. This section makes me think that Krakauer learned something from his experience writing Into the Wild and researching Chris McCandless. From that experience, he learned how unprepared and unexperienced Chris was, and how he didn't realize what he was getting himself into when he went to Alaska. He now writes the same ideas in Into Thin Air about the South Africans, Taiwanese, and the Norwegian. He learned that ignorance can lead to terrible things, and I would've expected him to try and stop the groups because of what he learned from Chris' story.