Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Questions our baseline human values
Wow, what a book! The emotions you stir up are unbelievable;and they won't go away. One moment I'm saying to myself: they leftpoor Yasuko Namba to die ....The next I'm thinking, in our material world, where we ignore starving children on our streets while we're tucked away in our cozy, fortified homes (just like all those May 1996 expeditions up the North East route, where noone was in the appalling physical condition of Rob's and Scott's teams and yet scarely any effort was made to aid climbers in distress). Which brings me to only one conclusion, which I feel is the powerful essence of this saga. Unless you were there, experiencing firsthand the semi-suicidal drive to get to the top then back down, the exhaustion, the weirdo "commerce-cum-vanity" competition between the climbing leaders, the hellish conditions that besieged everybody on the top on that fateful May 10 1996, any comments or opinions we care to utter now from the comfort of our sitting-rooms at sea-level are meaningless and empty.
And so I ask myself: must I climb Mt. Everest to truly understand what Jon's talking about? I fear the answer is yes-but then the players will be different.
Thank you for a classic piece of gut-wrenching writing for each of us to judge. Perhaps most readers will try to judge themselves by it, not the narrator. In awe of the powers of the elements, David Lee-Warner
Rating: - MORE THAT JUST A MOUNTAIN
I don't give many 5 star ratings. This book launched me into reading about mountain climbing and I have also since read two of Krakauer's other books which shows its profound effect on me. Into Thin Air describes the ill-fated adventure that occurred on Everest in 1996 in which a freak storm and poor judgment led to the untimely deaths of several would be summiters. Two of the deaths were mountaineers of great renown. So why read a book about tragedy and death? Jon Krakauer does what few authors can do. He gives you a true feeling of being there and feeling the wind, and the cold, and the snow. I found myself feeling short of breath at his description of altitude oxygen starvation. The author is honest and even in exposing his mistakes and share of blame in the tragedy. Some parts are quite humorous and I had to put the book down and laugh out loud. It is a mixture of adventure, suspense, and drama. I loved learning about the Sherpa culture and way of life over in the small villages and towns in Tibet. Also, you will learn about mountain climbing and the equipment and the skill necessary. Remember the phrase: "Getting to the summit is optional. Making it down is mandatory."
Rating: - A remarkable tale of hubris, courage, and bad luck
I have little to add to the praise for Jon Krakauer's INTO THIN AIR, but I feel I must make my small contribution nonetheless. Each chapter of this stunning book builds upon the suspense of the last, becomes as chilling as the ill-fated 1996 expedition to the top of Everest itself. As we read we know the disaster looms just ahead over the next peak, but Krakauer lulls us into a sense of oxygen-deprived serenity -- much like Krakauer experienced on Everest -- before the storm hits and the horror begins.An unbelievable story, truly, that made a folk hero out of Beck Weathers and the survivors the center of controversy for, perhaps, a foolhardy attempt at Everest's summit hours after the window of opportunity had been slammed shut. Every day now, as I climb any hill or tall set of stairs and find myself out of breath, I'll think of the adventurers at the roof of the world -- out of oxygen, dehydrated, beaten by the hurricane-force winds, exposed to unbelievable cold -- and I'll quietly, and humbly, be on my way.
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