Into Thin Air Analysis

In the spring of 1996, the Outside magazine sent Jon Krakauer, an experienced mountain climber who was also a journalist for the magazine, to summit Mount Everest as part of an expedition organized by Rob Hall’s company, Adventure Consultants. Despite Rob Hall’s stellar reputation as a guide for ascents of Mount Everest, tragedy struck his group on the day of their summit, leaving nineteen individuals stranded on the top of the world’s highest peak, eight of which died on that day or shortly after as a cause of the storm. Upon returning to the United States, the Outside asked Krakauer to write an article about the incident using seventeen thousand words or less. His article was then published in the September issue of the Outside magazine.

A strong point of view can enhance a writer’s work by providing a firsthand experience of what is happening at that point. If the point of view is from a character or person who is directly affected by the current events in the work, fictitious or not, the point of view from which the event is told can provide an accurate description of the incident, while a bystander may not be able to portray the event as vividly. Krakauer has written Into Thin Air from his perspective, as he was stranded on Mount Everest during the blizzard. He was personally able to witness the impact of the storm on the expedition groups and was able to provide a detailed, accurate account of the incident. Additionally, he had already descended most of the way to the highest camp on the mountain and therefore did not spend as much energy as others did trying to retreat to safety. As a result, Krakauer is more easily able to recall specific details about the incident and can understand the crew’s emotions and explain the actions they took. One such demonstration occurs when Krakauer believes he encounters Andy Harris, a guide for his expedition group, descending from Camp Four. After briefly conversing with him, Harris slides down a gradual slope of the mountain to the camp. Krakauer writes, “I watched Harris walk toward them across the flats, a distance he covered in less than ten minutes. When the clouds closed in a moment later, cutting off my view, he was within sixty feet of the tents, maybe closer. I didn’t see him again after that, but I was certain that he’d reached the security of camp, where Chuldum and Arita would doubtless be waiting with hot tea” (202). After the expedition was over, Krakauer learned that he had actually encountered Martin Adams, a member of the expedition who had a different stature and accent than Andy Harris did,