Jon Krakauer Everest Chapter Summary

Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1: This book starts in the chronological middle of the story. It has Krakauer atop everest with a storm brewing. Then it starts to explain physical ailments like coughing, separated ribs, trouble breathing, and a varied mental state because of a lack of oxygen. Two other guides are up with him Anatoli Boukreev and Andy Harris.

Chapter 2: In Chapter 2 the narrator discusses the history of everest and famous expeditions. Everest’s height was calculated in 1852 in India. Sir George Everest the surveyor general at that time used trigonometry to calculate everest height at 8,822 meters (28,943 ft). In this chapter also it talks about famous expeditions like Hillary and Tenzing and Messner and Habeler.

Chapter 3: In chapter 3 the narrator starts the chronological order of the story as they are in a plane flying to the meet up point for the group. Krakauer sees all the other peaks near Everest then he sees Everest. They pick up all the team members along the way and then the land. Once off the plane they got to a famous hotel that has housed many climber like Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. He finally meets Rob Hall.

Chapter 4: In

chapter 4 Krakauer explains the first few nights of their trek in this chapter. On the first night they sleep in a Lodge in Phakding, Nepal. The chapter also explains some famous stereotypes about sherpas and explains how sherpa life really is. Most people assume that all nepalese people are sherpas. Only 20,000 sherpas live in Nepal. For transportation most people walk and yaks are used for food and transportation. This begins the teams acclimatization. Acclimatization is the process where climber spend time adjusting to the high altitudes of everest. If a climber were to go from sea level to the top of mount everest they would last about 2 minutes before they passed out. Some Acclimation can take up to 4 months for Everest!
Chapter 5: In chapter 5 the group begins to climb and reaches Base Camp at the foot of Everest. They start to learn the acclimatization process and they get the plan on when and how they are going to make it to Everest's summit. It is decided that the summit push will be on May, 12 1996. They find out how clean Base Camp is and how much it is like back home. At Base Camp it is warm enough in the day to wear a t-shirt, but at night it is freezing.
Chapter 6: In this chapter the acclimatization process continues as they stay at Base Camp.

There acclimatization process is that they will make one day round trips to the next camp 2,000 feet up to acclimatize. When they set out for their first trip Krakauer see a lot of the group putting on new boots that have not been worn and he gets worried. Also a lot of them haven't climbed in over a year.

Chapter 7: In chapter 7 Krakauer talks about how Everest has changed from a professionals trek to anyone's trek. He explains that many inexperienced people have climbed Mount Everest with the help of sherpas and guides. He also mentions about the determination of Everest and how in some instances in history people who weren't allowed into Tibet or Nepal but they snuck in and managed to climb and summit Everest

undetected.
Chapter 8:On April 16, the group begins its second acclimatization climb from Base Camp to Camp One. Krakauer feels that he is getting used to the high altitude, although the Icefall remains daunting. The twelve-story block of ice is still there, looking even more precarious and ready to tumble. This time, Hall wants them to spend two nights at Camp One, then spend three nights at Camp Two before heading back down to Base Camp. Krakauer makes it to Camp One ahead of most of the climbers, and tries to help Sherpa Ang Dorje set up camp. He finds physical labor at the high altitude nearly impossible. Hall calls Dorje his "main man," and the two have climbed before. Dorje has summited Everest three times. In the morning they leave for Camp Two, situated almost four miles above them. They climb through the highest box canyon in the world, and up another glacier. At first, the temperature is freezing cold, but soon the sun, radiating off the glacier, turns the section of mountain into an oven. At 21,000 feet, Krakauer sees a dead body. Hall's best guess is that it is the body of a Sherpa that died a number of years before. At 21,300 feet they are at Camp Two, which consists of 120 tents. The next two days are extremely difficult due to the altitude—initially, Krakauer cannot do much except "lay in my tent with my head in my hands, trying to exert myself as little as possible". The next day, he climbs above Camp Two to help accelerate the acclimatization, and stumbles upon another dead body.
Chapter 9: In chapter 9 the group goes on its last acclimization trip up to camp three. The temprature was below negative 3 degrees. Krakauer awakes in his tent cold and frostbitten. Doug Hansens respitory tract freezes and they have to back to base camp, Hansen believes that he will not climb.
Chapter 10: In chapter 10, the team is at Camp Two and Hall's plan is to make two trips up to Camp Three. On the first trip he plans to go up and then climb down. On the second trip up the plan is to get to Camp Three and stay there for one night and return back to camp 2 to gather all of the other gear. In chapter 9 they were going to do that but it was postponed due to lack of ropes on the Lhotse face near Camp Three. Krakauer comes to realize the drive behind mosts of his teammates is not the fame but the goal of completing the Seven Summits.
Chapter 11: In chapter 11 the team heads up to Camp Three. At Camp Three the climbs get some rest for the upcoming summit attempt. On the climb up to Camp Three Andy Harris gets hit by a falling boulder, but luckily is unharmed.
Chapter 12: In chapter 12 the climbers are making their way to Camp Four. Over fifty people are climbing towards Camp Four at this time making a huge traffic jam that slows the climb down. Fortunately krakauer is a strong climber and makes it near the front of the line. krakauer makes it to Camp Four relatively quickly and settles down in his tent to rest for the upcoming summit attempt the next day. They will be required to wake up at 12:00 am the next morning in order to reach the summit and have enough time to get back down to Camp Four.
Chapter 13: In chapter 13 Krakauer and his team are finally summiting Everest. They reach the “Death Zone” at 25,000 feet that once they pass this point, time is of the essence because if they run out of oxygen at this height it could be fatal. There bottle oxygen supply is limited so that causes the need for efficiency and speed. Hall never decides a turn around time for the team.
Chapter 14: In chapter 14 Krakauer makes to the top of Mount Everest. He stays there for only five minutes because of his dwindling supply of oxygen. He sees some light clouds forming. On his way down the mountain he meets up with Andy Harris and asks him to turn his oxygen level down so he could conserve it. In Andy’s confusion he turns the oxygen all the way open. In a matter of minutes the oxygen is gone. In this chapter also everyone starts their decent down the mountain.
Chapter 15: In chapter 15 all of the team reaches the top of the mountain. They start to descend the mountain and that when the problems start to occur. During the descent most of the climbers run out of oxygen because of multiple hang ups higher up. Most of the climbers are tired and exhausted and out of oxygen. This will cause multiple climbers to almost give up requiring the guides to carry them back to the camps exhausting the guides in the process making the situation much more deadly.
Chapter 16: In chapter 16 Krakauer learns that Andy Harris who he thought he talked to and then saw him slide do the mountain was not Andy Harris but Martin Adams a guide. Krakauer had already told Andy's family that he was missing and presumed dead but he had to call and say that he was infact wrong. This will become on of the biggest mistakes Krakauer made. this will cause some sadness and pain for Krakauer once he arrives back home.

Psyche of an Everest Climber : The mindset of an Everest climber can be explained in many ways. Some people say a Everest climber has to be a certain percent crazy, a certain percent brave , and a certain percent adventurous to climb Mount Everest. To climb Mount Everest it is said to be 20% strength and 80% willpower. You need to be brave to handle the tough conditions and the months alone from family and friends, Also you need to have courage to be without help at some points along the climb, and you have to be a small percent crazy to try and climb Mount Everest and to pay the over 65,000 dollar fee.