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Introductory Blog: Into Thin Air

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 Rob Hall's Adventure Consultants expedition group After looking at the list of books and reading over their summaries, I have chosen to read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. The autobiography seems like a very jaw dropping story of a Mt. Everest disaster, which will hopefully leave me on the edge of my seat every night. My uncle has a passionate for climbing and has spread very positive reviews about the book. He takes me rock climbing occasionally but I have yet to ice climb or even rock climb anything near the size of Mt. Everest. I am hoping that Into Thin Air will let my imagination roam free and give me a perspective of what it feels like to climb the tallest mountain in the world. I am really looking forward to reading the Jon Krakauer award winning book. About Into Thin Air : The author Jon Krakauer is a journalist for Outside magazine and has written many books such as Iceland, Eiger Dream and Into the Wild. In 1996, Outside magazine sent Krakauer to participate and w...
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Blog Entry #1: King of the Mountain

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Many of my friends and family members asked me which book I had chosen to read for this English summer course. When I told them I was reading  Into Thin Air  by Jon Krakauer, I received positive feedback from everyone who had previously read the book. So far, the first third of the novel has held up to its praise as one of the greatest “adventure books of all time” (The Wall Street Journal). In the introduction section, Krakauer quickly  summarises  the disaster of May 10 th , hinting at what is later to come in the novel. After reading the introduction I never expected Krakauer would begin the first chapter with his summit of Mt. Everest. Doing so, he paints a good picture of what it is like to be on top of the world. Literally! He describes it as a “spectacular sight” (Krakauer 4), seeing the “the vastness of Tibet… beneath his feet” (Krakauer 4). When I was eleven, I hiked Mt. Washington in New Hamphsire, which is approximately 6,288 ft tall (4.6 times smaller tha...
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Blog Entry #2: Colonization of Sagarmatha

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      In 1852, Radhandath Sikhdar, a scientist from India, discovered the 29,028 foot colossal that is now known as Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. After word of the discovery got out to the public, the race to the top immediately began and the impact of colonization quickly followed. Ever since the very first expedition was launched, Sherpas were hired to help guide the ascent up the mountain. A  hundred and one years after the discovery, Mt. Everest was finally conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a highly skilled Sherpa mountaineer. For those who don’t know, Sherpas are a native culture from Nepal that live on the mountains in the Himalayan region. “There are no more than 20,000 in all of Nepal, a nation… that has some 20 million residents” (Krakauer 55), and they exist to protect the mountain. Sherpas are very spiritual people and they believe that the mountain (which they call “Sagarmatha”) is a living spirit. Once climbers began ...
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Final Blog Entry: Base Camp Perspectives

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Map of Mt. Everest The book  Into Thin Air  by Jon Krakauer  has lived up to all the praise it had received by many of my friends and family. My uncle who is passionate about rock climbing recommended this book in the past, so I was glad to see that it was one of the book choices. I never understood how dangerous high altitude climbing was until I read about the events in the book and now I have a newfound respect for those that climb high, while at the same time wondering why they take the risk.                                                           The two blogs that I previously wrote analyzed the novel using reader response and postcolonial literary theory. Both analytical topics have their pros and cons. I found that reader response has a lot more variety to choose from. There are many more topics you can write about and ...
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