Psychological Obstacles In Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air indulges in the numerous obstacles the climbers encountered while summiting Mount Everest. The Mount Everest expeditions in May 1996 uncovered the extreme dangers that can occur when people experience poor judgement. Although the climbers had their own self-interest in mind, the actions of one climber affects the entire expedition. While ascending Everest, the climbers encountered several challenges from physical, emotional, and environmental obstacles that shaped their experiences on Mount Everest. But, psychological obstacles affected the climbers the most because they had a fear of failure. Likewise, people experience failures throughout their lives, and they are eager for success. Subsequently, their extreme

fear of failure resulted in their lack of judgement which led to their death.
Of the people on the expedition, Rob Hall had the most severe influence with the fear of failure because he concerned himself with the credibility of his company Adventure Consultants. Hall experienced difficulty in 1995: “he had failed to get anybody to the top in 1995” (Krakauer 285). Although Hall accomplished significant feats throughout his career, the failure of not having anyone in his expedition in 1995 reach the top hurt his business slightly because climbers do not want to invest money if there is any evidence of failure. A second consecutive failure for his business would have severely hampered his business opportunities; especially if Scott Fischer’s expedition reached the summit in 1996 because adventurers will be eager to join the winning side. With Fischer’s competition, climbers have a choice with whom they want to ascend with, so Hall needed to prove that he is the best. The designated turnaround time had been set for 2:00 P.M. to ensure that the members would have ample enough time to return safely from the summit. Unfortunately, Anatoli Boukreev, Andy Harris, Neal Beidleman, Martin Adams, Klev Schoening, and Krakauer were the only climbers to summit by 2:00 (Krakauer 208). Hall did not stay true to his promise of a turnaround time because he could not tell the remaining climbers to turn around, since they had invested so much money in the trip, and he could not afford a bad reputation for the lack of success. Climbers strive for thrill and accomplishment; therefore, Hall kept the group moving to ensure they experienced the joy of conquering Mount Everest, and so they would not feel failure like Hall experienced in 1995. As a result of his fear of failure, Rob Hall led many climbers to their deaths.
Also, Doug Hansen experienced the fear of failure during the expedition because he had the pressure of letting himself down and everyone in his hometown.

He could not accept failure again: “I’d gotten to know Doug well enough at that point to realize that he’d spent the entire previous year agonizing over the fact that he’d gotten to within three hundred feet of the summit and had to turn around” (Krakauer 171). Hansen remained determined throughout the climb to the summit despite becoming ill and climbing slower than the rest of the group, since he failed to summit the previous year. For both trips to Mount Everest, Hansen invested approximately $128,000 in total for an opportunity to summit the peak. Hansen had invested an enormous amount of time and money. By choosing to attempt two expeditions, Hansen put his job as a postal worker on hold. In addition, the students of Sunrise Elementary School fundraised for Hansen’s trip; he had added pressure on him to succeed because he had assistance in funding, and he wanted the students to see that dreams do come true (Krakauer 73). His fear of failure resulted in his unrelenting stride toward the summit. Although he summited around 4:00, Hansen was in no condition to descend when the storm occurred; his determination and Hall’s lack of commitment with the turn-around time combined to place the two in a deadly situation (Krakauer 236). Doug Hansen experienced failure atop Mount Everest in 1995, and his fear of repeating the same

failure resulted in him going to the summit regardless of his condition and the time which resulted in his death.
Unsurprisingly, Scott Fischer endured the fear of failure throughout his expedition of Mount Everest because he strived to be a renowned climber.

Fischer concerned himself mainly with his recognition throughout the climbing community: “He worried that some of these top climbers didn’t respect him” (Krakauer 68). His lack of recognition among the climbing community led Fischer to perform difficult tasks, which led him to push himself and cause several drastic falls. While in Utah’s Provo Canyon, Fischer challenged two experienced climbers, but he fell 100 feet and survived (Krakauer 67). Fischer had a reputation for being extreme on the mountains and lucky to survive some of his falls. He became accustomed to striving for excellence and pushing himself no matter the risk; therefore, he would not allow Everest to elude his expedition. In addition to his suffering ego, Fischer started Mountain Madness in an attempt to establish a competitive business against Rob Hall’s Adventure Consultants: “If he could emulate Hall, it would quickly catapult Mountain Madness to profitability” (Krakauer 70). Fischer hoped to become more respected if he became more like Hall who experienced greater success. Fischer’s determination to be someone drove him to push himself beyond his threshold; while climbing Annapurna massif in Nepal, he became infected with Entamoeba histolytica, which results in sweating spells and the shakes (Krakauer 210-211). Fischer rarely revealed his condition, due to

the risk of being denied the leadership of the expedition, and also the subsequent recognition by the climbing community for leading the expedition to the summit. Fischer’s competition with Hall helped to establish his fear of failure: “Fischer was trying very hard to eat Hall’s lunch” (Krakauer 285). Fischer pushed himself and his members to reach the summit of Everest because if Hall succeeded, Fischer’s career would come to an end if he failed. In addition, his condition with Entamoeba histolytica required him to exert more effort to reach the summit because he did not want to fail in reaching the summit regardless of the time because he reached the summit two hours after the turn-around time. Scott Fischer’s actions to prevent his failure of leading his expedition to the summit eventually led to his demise on Mount Everest.
Although summiting Mount Everest challenges the climbers to the extreme, the drastic effects of the fear of failure resulted in the deaths of many climbers in 1996. Coincidentally, each person’s fear of failure increased the probability that their actions would result in the deaths of themselves and the other climbers. Throughout Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer explores numerous climbers and their reasons for ascending Everest, and in doing so, it is revealed that each climber suffers from a fear of failure. Even though most people died, they experienced the thrill of a lifetime that many people do not experience. The members of the expedition longed to stand out in their respective communities: “As individuals, we want to, individually, be better than other individuals” (“Super Humanity”). Striving for excellence is witnessed throughout the world from the Olympics to a local high school football game, but all excellence is achieved from not accepting failure and demanding success no matter the circumstances. For Scott Fischer and Rob Hall, their fear of failure resulted in them trying to stand out from everyone else by attempting the difficult task of leading people to the summit of Mount Everest. Although their actions led to the deaths of several people, they did get the majority of the members to the summit. For Doug Hansen, he wanted to do the extraordinary and conquer Mount Everest, and after their extreme investments, they could not afford to fail atop Everest. In pursuing the accomplishment, they both summited, but failed to survive the descent. Despite several obstacles, psychological obstacles produced the fear of failure among the climbers which brought on their inevitable failure and death.