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Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

by Jon Krakauer

A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's... (more)

Top tags: adventure, non-fiction, nonfiction, mountain climbing, memoir (all tags)

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1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

Rated 5 stars

“What an amazing, gripping, terrifying, read. This launched me into several other books about Everest and this tragedy.”

Chad Estes’s full review »

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Rated 4.170347 stars

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Rated 4.5 stars

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susan y said:

“I had been in Nepal and India before the WTC disaster. Someone had given me the book to read. I read this book in 2001 with enthusiasm and finished it in a week. I had finished the book the night before 9/11. I would like to climb Mt. Everest after traveling around the world in 90 days. I had the same thin air effect in North India. Try trekking in the Himalayan Mts on a donkey trail with slate rock falling above you.”

posted Thursday, August 21 2008

robin636 said:

“i thought this book was mega-interesting...how/why do people endure this kind of torture...speaking of which, i only got through part of this author's bk about the mormons and have put aside his other Into the Wild...think i'll watch the filminstead!

cheers,”

posted Saturday, June 28 2008 ( | view 1 reply )

ken p said:

“I read this book and shortly afterward read The Climb. I much preferred Krakauer's account, as Bourkreev's account seemed a little too defensive. I think he doth protest too much. Though I highly respect what Boukreev did to try to save others, Krakauer seemed to have less at stake when trying to be objective. If you really want a great account of this tragedy from an objective source, find NG's "Everest: Mountain Without Mercy" by Broughton Coburn which tells the account of the Imax team led by David Breashears and Ed Viesturs, who risked the success of their expedition to help injured and weakened people off the mountain. They have no ax to grind because they weren't so close to the action that they wouldn't be able to remain objective. It's a moving account.”

posted Friday, June 27 2008

lee r said:

“Very good analysis of the disaster and what happened afterwards”

posted Wednesday, March 12 2008

aedsax s said:

“Most of the events in the book was tragic, but maybe the most appalling of all was the fact that the survivors (especially the author) were being blamed for the deaths of the others after all that they've been through. It's an amazing account of humanity.”

posted Thursday, December 6 2007

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