John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air has throughout the years become a staple in classic mountaineering novels. When I began reading this book I was curious on how this book would compare to some of the other books that we have read in class. Ultimately I decided that Krakauer was a highly opinionated individual and this attitude is portrayed in his portrayal of the events that occurred in the 1996 Everest disaster. Some differences that stood out was the lack of comradery among the climbers participating in the expedition, it seemed that Krakauer was disconnected from the rest of the crew and climbers that would be making the summit push with him. Could this be due to the fact that the people climbing with him were not experienced climbers such as he, possibly he was biased and most certainly in some shape or form saw these commoners as a nuisance unable to grasp the true beauty on the expedition that they were about to embark on. compared to other books that we read Into Thin Air gives the reader an inside look into what the climbing community has turned into, in a sense it has lost some of its pure roots and has greatly been affected by commercialization and media coverage. This may be the reason for Krakauer’s disconnect with the other members of his expedition as most of them are buying their way to the top of Everest seeing them as clients who without the help of a guide could not get remotely close to the peak of Everest rather than true high altitude mountaineers. A big theme that stood out in this book is the oversaturation of Everest expeditions and how it has in a sense cheapened the whole experience for people that are true mountaineers.

A big theme that stood out in this book is the oversaturation of Everest expeditions and how it has in a sense cheapened the whole experience for people that are truly mountaineers. Krakauer describes how much the commercialization of Everest has trickled down to ever facet of the climbing community from competition among sherpas to get hired by the best climbing companies to expeditions competing for the most media attention to even fighting for Krakauer to join certain expeditions for more media coverage.This leads to another question that has plagued the climbing community since the events of the 1996 Everest disaster what went wrong on that day? Was this the result of a freak storm that ended up taking down even the most experienced climbers? or was this a result of the sheer number of people making a push for the summit that day. One could argue that these amateur expeditions and their promises of summiting certainly didn’t help circumstances. Through his story on the events that transpired that day whether they are not entirely factual or not ultimately are trying to convey that commercialization of high altitude mountaineering has turned the sport into more of a vacation for those willing to spend the money rather than for the love of the sport. He stresses that trust among your expedition teammates is crucial for any mountaineering crew and the fact that most were amateur, at best climbers lead to a lot of selfish and unexplainable actions on Everest that day that ultimately caused the deaths of some of the best climbers in the world at that time. Almost twenty years after the book has been published and the climbing community is still faced with the question on whether people should be allowed to buy their way to the tops of the world’s highest peaks.