Into Thin Air

In keeping with my monthly book reading exploits, my most recent read was this novel by Jon Krakauer, author of Into The Wild- a factual account of his exploits and the results.

Plot: Having climbed for a number of years, Krakauer is given a new assignment by Outside Magazine- Would you like to scale Mount Everest and write about it?

Think about it; you're in your early 40's, wife, kids, life and a latent desire to accomplish a feat matched by fewer than 5000 people. That sounds like a lot, but when you add up the efforts, the loss and the years trying to do just this, it's truly a small number.

While on his climb from base camp to camp 2, 3 and the summit, Krakauer and his compatriots face dilemmas that would make the average, book reading person quiver- myself included.

The real coincidence is that while this story was being lived, another team set about scaling the largest mountain in the world- a team filming for Imax. as such, there is a 44 minute film (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120661/) that goes some way to also account for the events that transpired atop Sagarmatha (the mountain's Tibetan name).

Told initially through back history of the mountain and failed ventures to conquer it, Krakauer then takes us along for the journey, a journey that sees death and disfigurement in droves.

Following publication of his article in Outside magazine and the subsequent book, Krakauer's involvement in the disaster of 1996 received an equal number of condemnations as well as understanding acknowledgements.

It's down to the reader, the experienced climbers and the author himself to make up his or her own mind as to the culpability of the men and women on that climb.

All I'll say is that despite the harrowing nature of the mountain and this account, I feel sympathy for the families, the survivors and oddly enough, I feel a little bit of an urge to start climbing myself.

If you're interested, there's also this documentary series;

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0883680/