Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Thrilling and Unforgettable
I found Into Thin Air, as well as Krakauer's excellent Into the Wild, to be two of the most gripping, emotional, unforgettable reads of my life. Into Thin Air tells a fascinating story of hardship, tragedy, heroism and perhaps lack of respect for nature, and unlike virtually all books of the genre the author was there, suffering through the storm and watching his comrades fall. Sebastian Junger, in his compelling book The Perfect Storm, pieced together information to try and imagine what it was like on the Andrea Gail out in the North Atlantic. Krakauer was actually on the summit of Everest in May 1996, and he takes the reader on one helluva ride.Most of you who have gotten this far in the reviews knows the basic premise. Krakauer was sent to Everest by Outside magazine to join New Zealand guide Ron Hall's expeedition in the spring of 1996. He was there to write an expose about how anyone who is reasonably in shape, has some (and not a lot) of climbing experience, and who can fork over more than $60,000 could be taken to the summit of Everest while Sherpas and yaks carried most of your supplies, cooked your meals, and carried you when you collapsed. One climber even brought an espresso machine. He also wanted to comment on how Everest has become a virtual junk yard, with empty oxygen cannisters strewn all over the face of the mountain. What he found changed his life forever. Krakauer was caught up in a deadly storm, that appeared virtually "out of thin air", leaving members of his and other teams stranded on the summit and on Hillary Step (a ledge just below the summit) with little chance of making it down. The story is gripping, suspenseful and ultimately deeply moving. The reader may think humans, especially those with pregnant wives at home, have no business at the summit of Everest, but you cannot help being deeply moved as you read about Rob Hall talking to his wife on the other side of the world, via satellite phone, to discuss the name of their unborn child while Hall is stranded on the mountain. The book kept me up nights as few others ever have. A point about the "feud" with Anatoli Boukreev is worth mentioning, since, in my opinion, this has been blown out of proportion by others. Krakauer recognizes that each climber has his own way of doing things, but he took some shots at the Mountain Madness expedition led by Scott Fischer, and at his guide Boukreev in particular, for climbing without supplemental oxygen and for descending ahead of the group's clients. I think he made some good points there. Boukreev was no doubt a great climber, and his death in an avalanche the next year makes the whole debate a little pointless, but I think a client if I were to fork over $60,000 I have the right to expect that the guide will be out on the mountain with me as I descend, not warming up in the hut drinking tea. Boukreev is credited by Krakauer with a heroic trip back up the mountain during a blizzard to reach Fischer, and he may have been told earlier by Fischer to descend (we'll never know for sure), but those tactics are surely open to debate. Some reviewers here on Amazon have taken personal shots at Krakauer's actions during the storm, but he was no paid guide, and he rightfully takes some blame himself in his book for abandoning Beck Weathers and for giving some false info to the family of one of his guides, Andy Harris that added to the confusion in those first days of the incident. In any event, if you want to get caught up in the whole Krakauer v. Boukreev debate, be my guest - you can read both of their accounts of what happened on that fateful trip. For my money, Krakauer's account is the definitive, well-written story, which should at the very least be used as a starting point for anyone interested in the 1996 Everest tragedy. And for most people (like myself) with little or no interest in climbing, read Into Thin Air on its own as a gripping, unforgettable account of a very public tragedy which you will not soon forget.
Rating:  - Top of the Mountain
I bought this book because there was nothing but pulp fiction on the market bookrack and I desperately needed something to read on vacation. I already knew the story, having seen it on one of the television newsmagazines. But the cover said it was great---"one of the great adventure books of all time." Yeah, sure. All I need is a book to send me off to dreamland, right? Wrong. It IS one of the greatest adventure books of all time. I couldn't put it down. I stayed up two hours after my wife fell asleep and woke up before dawn and continued reading it by the dim glow of a penlight. Krakauer is a magnificent writer and storyteller, and what a story he has to tell. Blending mini-biographies of the fascinating people who choose to ascend Mt. Everest with the drama of their doomed encounter with the forces of nature--all set against Everest's exotic locale--Krakauer draws us up onto the mountain with him, giving us a primer in the lore and politics of alpine climbing as well as a a gripping recount of death's relentless and sometimes capricious assault on mortality. It will take your breath away.
Rating: - The Making of a legend
I picked this book up in the San Francisco airport and read it on three different legs of a trip to NYC, CHI, and back to SFO. During the reading I kept reminding myself that the Airliner I was safely housed in was at approximately the same altitude of Mt. Everest. John Krakauer's account of the 1996 Everest disaster is fair, insightful, and most likely the best account we will have of what transpired during the month long ascent. Local customs, legend, and the spiritual background of the peak adds to the depth of the books seductiveness. Krakauer's account crescendos in the final chapters in which Krakauer describes (I won't give this away) the ghostly survival of one member of the team, a living legend, a folk hero in this readers opinion. As a long distance swimmer and runner I don't believe I've ever come close to the physical and psychological demands placed on climbers undertaking an ascent of this type. I have friends who have climb Mt. Shasta (Highest point in CA, at approx. 14,000 ft.) and describe similar experiences. As I spoke of the book to them they challenged me to climb next June with them. Is this the kindling of a drive to climb Everest
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