Outside Reading 3- Jamie Englert

In his book Into Thin Air, John Krakauer tells his story about his summit of Mt. Everest. It is not one that includes happy endings or joyful takeaways but rather details the trials and tragedies that took place, some of which unfortunately led several men’s deaths. In the beginning of his book he states, “The plain truth is that I knew better but went to Everest anyway. And in doing so I was a party to the death of many good people, which is something that is apt to remain on my conscience for a very long time.” When I read this, it seemed rather depressing but I realized Krakauer was not going to sugar coat his expedition into something it was not. The book was not intended tell of his marvelous triumph in climbing Everest, it was exposing the raw, real story of everything he encountered and everything he experienced, good or bad. People dying on or while climbing Everest is neither a new thing nor a surprising thing, but I cannot imagine the weight felt when you know a fellow climber, someone perhaps you have got to know well and gone through difficult stretches with, is not going to make it. Krakauer experiences this several times and still is confused on how it happens even with the most skilled climbers in history. After Everest, Krakauer had to write an article for Outside magazine, which he received a lot of criticism for. I do like however, what a sister of one of the men killed wrote in response to Krakauer’s article: “No amount of your analyzing, criticizing, judging or hypothesizing will bring you the peace you are looking for. There are no answers. No one is at fault. No one is to blame. Everyone was doing their best at the given time under the given circumstances. No one intended harm for one another. No one wanted to die.”

I think the point she is trying to make is that as much as Krakauer racks his brain to make sense of everything, he is going to end up short. None of the men could have predicted the conditions on the mountain that day or the obstacles they would encounter and Krakauer needs to accept this.