Man's battle againstMt. Everest

by Joe Elliott perspectiveseditor

"Straddling the top of the world, one foot in Tibet and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask,hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently at the vast sweep of earth below." This is a quote from "Into Thin Air," the novel written by Jon Krakauer.

"Into Thin Air'' is a true-life story of a writer fighting against the odds of Mother Nature. Krakauer, who has also written "Into the Wtld" and "Eiger Dreams:' has recounted his near life-ending trip to the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, which rises 29,028 feet above sea level.

Krakauer is able to give his version of the carnage that took place on Everest back in the spring of I 996. "Into Thin Air'' exemplifies all that people fear in life-such as being alone, pain. suffering, and dying-as well as the good things, like reaching goals set, defying insurmountable odds, relying on others and helping your friends.

"Into Thin Air" is able to show us a tale of some of the greatest and most respectable Himalayan climbers in the world. Trip leaders Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, and assistant trip leader, Andy Harris, all took their last trips up Everest in 1996.YasukoNamba and Doug Hansen also suffered from the power of Everest that fatal year.

It was said that the easiest part at taking Everest was getting to the top. The hardest was trying to get down. And we can see that in

1996, it would be the toughest trek home for every single climber. On the afternoon of May 10, a hurricane slammed into the area just a few hundred feet from Everest's summit, also known as the South Summit The hurricane whipped up some of the most ferocious winds imaginable, making vision obsolete and every step down the mountain possibly the climbers' last.

This is where Hall Harris and Hansen all lost their lives that tragic day.

Krakauer does more than talk about the trip up Everest. He talks about why Everest has become such a traveled mountain. Over the past years, hundreds of people have climbed it Krakauer talks about how the mountain has been slandered due to the fact that people were climbing themountain for all the wrong reasons.

People were paying close to $65,000 just to have a guide take them up and down the mountain. Krakauer' s main purpose of this exhibition was to determine whether or not the mountain was being abused.

I think that "Into Thin Air" is a gripping tale of man versus Mother Nature. Krakauer is able to take you from the wann confines of your home into the harsh environment of Everest. In reading this book, I constantly felt theurge to want to read more. I felt as though I needed to bundle myself in blankets and tum up the heat in the room. "Into ThinAir'' is able to tell a tale of more than one person's mission. It tells themission of an entire generation's dream to be the _._