Mountaineering Ethics

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Jon Krakauer’s personal account of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy in which eight climbers perished, Into Thin Air, addresses the tenacious nature of climbers and their unrelenting desire to reach their goal – the summit. This strong ambition ultimately tests the climbers’ concerns with other elements of life such as family, environmental responsibility and moral judgement, all of which are endangered by their individual desire to reach the summit. Whilst the climbers are undeniably selfishly driven to the summit, Krakauer’s retrospective account of the expedition suggests that the climbers were concerned and aware of the damaging consequences of their pursuits but acting on this concern was over-shadowed by a compulsion to explore the mystique of Everest.

Krakauer admits that he didn’t accept his invitation to Hall’s Adventure Consultants expedition for the magazine article, but rather to fulfil his own “burning ambition”. Personal drive and ambition resonates with all of the climbers featured in Krakauer’s personal account, as they pay $65,000 each for a shot at the summit and give up work and family for the following months.

Jon Krakauer agrees to climb Mount Everest despite his wife pleading otherwise because he is “in the grip of the Everest mystique”, highlighting a climber’s ability to shirk his family responsibilities for mountaineering purposes. When discussing the possibility of death on Everest his wife, Linda, states that “it’s not just you who’ll pay the price...Doesn’t that matter to you?” Krakauer’s response, “don’t be melodramatic” certainly indicates that at the time of his obsession with Everest, he was casting aside the impact his climbing had on others. Scott Fischer also demonstrates unbalanced priorities, ...

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...he results of commercialisation and increased tourism. Grotesque images of toilets “overflowing with excrement” and the lodge being “an open sewer” communicate the awful implications of overwhelming tourism and bountiful expeditions. Also, Krakauer makes a note of the rubbish accumulated on Everest but he points out how Scott Fischer “removed 5,000 pounds of trash from the mountain”. Fischer’s awareness of the pollution on the mountain further suggests that the climbers do hold themselves accountable for environmental damage. Whilst they may selfishly continue to contribute to commercialisation in spite of the obvious environmental implications, they seem meticulously aware of the harm they are causing and, in Fischer’s case, attempt to reduce the impact of their need to climb (as it’s impossible for them to stop climbing, they do what they can to fit around this).

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