BDCHS Advanced Reading discussion

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is an exciting and frightening true story about an expedition to reach the top of Mt. Everest that went horribly wrong. Jon Krakauer was hired to climb Mt. Everest and write an article about the transformation of the mountain from a threatening endeavor to a tourist trap. He joins a group of climbers that includes Mike Groom, a guide from Adventure Consultants, a client from A.C., Doug Hansen, Rob Hall, the head guide from A.C., Beck Weathers, a doctor, Ang Dorje, Rob Hall's main Sherpa, Scott Fischer, the rival of Rob Hall, and lead guide for Mountain Madness, Anatoli Boukreev, one of Fischer's guides, Lopsang Jangbu, Fischer's best Sherpa, Tim Madsen, a client of Fischer's group, Neal Beidleman, one of Fischer's guides, Ian Woodall, the leader of the South African group, Sandy Pittman, from NBC, and Makalu Gau the leader of the Taiwanese group. Jon joins a group and begins the climb, the climb is cut into sections, there are multiple camps along the way up, Base Camp, Camp 1, Camp 2, Camp 3, and Camp 4. The idea is to Climb from one camp to another, stopping for a few days at each camp, then moving on the the next. As they climb the mountain, the differences in everyone's skill level shows, many people rely heavily on the others and the guides, whereas others are very qualified and begin with little trouble. There isn't a death until about halfway through the book, when a Sherpa gets sick and is airlifted back to the bottom, however, he does not make it. The turn-around time set by Rob Hall is 2:00 PM, meaning if you didn't reach the top by then, you had to turn around and go back. Jon and a few others make it, but there are some who did not listen to the turn around time and went on past it. On the way down, a storm hits them, and many people get stranded, including Rob Hall and Doug Hansen, they were never found. Scott Fischer is found dead and Beck Weathers almost dies, but makes it back to Camp with a serious case of frostbite on his arm. The theme of this book i my opinion is not to get over-confident. Many people joined the expedition thinking it would be easy, and many of them died. From this story I learned that when people see a challenge, they will always want to conquer it, no matter the cost. Overall I really enjoyed this book and would give it a 4/5.