My comments

Emily Rose

Anders

Tess

Hanna Stolt

Boone

Nels

David

Laura Woodwick

Will K

Kelly THotland

outside reading final post

In the last part of the climbers' journey, they experience confusion, chaos, and cold. Many of the climbers die or get frostbitten. This end is caused by many reasons. The leaders, Hall and Fischer, are competing to see who can more climbers to summit so their business can look better. They are blinded by this drive and don't pay attention to other factors like hypoxia which makes the climber delusional. This happens to many climbers, and results in mistaking full oxygen tanks as empty, a critical mistake that breaks the possible outcome of survival for a couple climbers. Krakauer makes these speculations himself, and I find the accusations against Hall and Fischer a bit harsh. I don't think what Krakauer thinks is true. The number one priority on a mountain guide's list is safety, even if it means the team must turn around and not summit. Even if they are 100 feet from the summit. The disaster on Everest affected Krakauer emotionally, and for this reason he is harsh and rash in his blames. He may never leave behind the tragedies that occured on the mountain. He wonders whether the glory of reaching the summit was worth what else happened on the mountain, and other questions like that, and is very depressed about what happened and his decisions, some within his control, some not within his control. I think that an experience like that should change someone forever. Krakauer was changed. It comes clear in other books of his I've read and interviews I've seen, in that he is more like an parent, more careful in his life and views than his younger days as a mountain and rock climber. 

Post 9

In Chapter 16 of Into Thin Air, Krakauer finds out that Andy Harris didn't make it back from the summit. The night before Krakauer pointed Harris in the right direction and saw him clamber into camp. After searching for him for a while, he realizes that Harris fell of a cliff. Krakauer is really, really upset by this. He is unbearably sad, and feels bad for telling people that Andy made it back safe the previous night. He had even talked to Andy's girlfriend on the phone and told her. Krakauer then tells of another story, that I notice he does a lot, as I have previously noted. Krakauer tells of his times after returning from Everest. He tries contacting everyone on the trip on what happened and how certain people met their end. Through one of these interviews Krakauer makes a horrifying discovery. He realizes he made another mistake concerning the disapearence of Harris. He finds out that the person he directed back to camp wasn't Harris, it was Martin Adams. Adams had gotten stuck in a crevasse, and pulled himself out. Krakauer was sitting at the top and pointed him in the right direction, Krakauer thinking it was Harris and Adams not knowing who it was. Krakauer got his conclustion of Harris falling off the cliff by the footprints by the crevasse. He is horrified by his second mistake and wants to find out what really happened to Harris. The chapter really builds up suspense, and is the first really gripping part. It makes me really want to read on and not put the book down, the first time this has happened in the book. Its starting to get good. 

Post 8

In Chapter 15 of Into Thin Air, all the climbers have reached the summit. They are all spread out from one another, and don't know where each other are. Krakauer had to do much research to find out exactly what happened at these points in time because he was far away from the summit by the time his other group members reached the summit. The whole mountain was in chaos was because a big storm had started up while everyone was summiting. No one noticed the storm brewing. Because the group wasn't together with Rob Hall, the leader, they didn't notice it. THe leader would've gotten them off the mountain if he was with them. It is one of the most important things to do when climbing a mountain like everest is to pay attention to the weather. The weather can change very rapidly, and if you don't notice it you can die. Unfortunatly, not all the group members made it back to camp from the summit. The Japanese woman, Yasuko Namba died. The group members where walking all around the camp, within 1000 feet of it, for hours before finding it. The wind was blowing at hurricane speeds, and it blew a climber off the mountain. I think this chapter is Krakauer's way of telling us how big of a factor the weather is, an how alert and focused you have to be when you are there. You have to respect the mountain and how insignificant you are to it.