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from: Random House Audio
List Price: $31.95Amazon.com's Price: $24.92 You Save: $7.03 (22%)Prices subject to change.
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Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522095496
EAN: 9780553502190
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 0553502190
Label: Random House Audio
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Number Of Items: 6
Publication Date: April 06, 1998
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: April 06, 1998
Studio: Random House Audio
Sales Rank: 957271
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Product Description:
Unabridged!
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering affects of oxygen deprivation. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous decent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, as the storm swept the peek with seventy-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning he awakened to learn that six of his companions hadn't made it back to their camp, and were in a desperate struggle for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of his fellow climbers would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that he would have to have his right hand amputated. By the time all expeditions had quit the mountain and departed Nepal, twelve people had perished on the slopes of Everest.
Into Thin Air is the definitive, personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of Eiger Dreams and Into the Wild. On assignment from Outside magazine, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas to report the growing commercialization of the planet's highest mountain. Everest has always been a dangerous mountain. From the first British expeditions in the 1920s until 1996, one climber has died for every four who have attained the summit. This shocking death toll has not put a damper on the burgeoning business of guided ascents, however, in which amateur alpinists with alarmingly disparate skills are ushered up the mountain for a $65,000 fee.
To ascend into the thin, frigid air above 26,000 feet--the cruising altitude of a commercial jetliner--is an inherently inrrational act. The environment is unimaginably harsh, the margin for error minuscule. Krakauer examines what it is about Evereest that has compelled so many people--including himself--to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's frank eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.
Amazon.com Review:
"Intrinsically irrational" is how Jon Krakauer characterizes the compulsion to climb Mount Everest in his audiobook Into Thin Air. The highly publicized fates of the May 1996 Everest expeditions, including the tragic loss of 12 lives, seem to bear out Krakauer's statement. Listening to Krakauer read his own account of the events in this unabridged version adds a uniquely intimate and thought-provoking dimension to the tragedy. Although Krakauer reads his account with journalistic professionalism, it's impossible to forget that you are listening to someone unburdening himself of a great weight, an unburdening that sometimes nearly approaches a confession.
Since the 1980s, more and more "marginally qualified dreamers" have attempted the ascent of Everest, as guided commercial expeditions have dangled the possibility of reaching the roof of the world in front of anyone wealthy enough to pay for the privilege. In 1996, Outside magazine asked Krakauer, a frequent contributor, to write a piece on the commercialization of Everest, and Krakauer signed on as a member of New Zealander Rob Hall's expedition. The disastrous outcome of the 1996 expedition forced Krakauer to write a very different article.
Those who read Krakauer's book may wonder whether the audiobook can possibly shed more light on the unfortunate events. It does. Krakauer's chronicle is chilling and horrifying. He recounts with excruciating detail the physical and mental cost of such a climb. Even under the best of circumstances, each step up the ice-clad mountain is monumentally exhausting, and the oxygen-deprived brain loses the ability to make reliable judgements. And on May 10, 1996, when Hall's expedition and several others made their summit assault, the conditions were far from ideal. The mountain was so "crowded" that climbers had to wait their turn near the summit while their bottled oxygen dwindled by the minute. By afternoon a blinding hurricane-force storm had stranded a number of climbers on the highest, most exposed reaches of the mountain.
By writing and reading Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. (Running time: 467 minutes; six tapes)
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I was on lunch break at a previous job and reading Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau for the second time in my life. My co-worker comes up to me and said, "is that a good book, I've never read it?". I told him it was a book I could relate to, because I too like being outside and surrounded by nothing but nature and the way Mr. Thoreau described his experimental sojourn out in the woods was exactly the way I preferred to live too. My friend told me, "I have a book that you would probably like, It's ... Read More
Rating: -
Even non-outdoorsmen (that would be me) will enjoy this true story of triumph over the mountain. I highly highly recommend!
Rating:  -
Let me state up front that I'm a Krakauer fan, that I've read (and own) many of his books, that I consider his short story about climbing the Devil's Thumb a true classic in mountaineering literature, and that I've read "Into Thin Air" several times. It is a page turner.
Recently however, I discovered the point of view of someone else covering the same tragedy. I am referring to The Climb by Boukreev and DeWalt. For those that don't know, Boukreev was a guide on the mountain that terrible ... Read More
Rating:  -
As a journalist for Outside magazine, Jon Krakauer was assigned to climb and cover a guided trip to the top of Mt Everest. After being dropped off in Kathmandu at the end of March 1996, where he soon meets his guides and co-clients, he is on his way to a memorably grisly adventure. The group slowly makes its way up the mountain, stopping at a series of base camps during a six-week period designed to acclimate their bodies to the extreme altitude. Up until the last day push to the summit on May 10, the trip ... Read More
Rating: -
I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT AFTER READING THIS BOOK, I WANT TO START MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. THERE IS THAT SOMETHING IN ME, THAT SAYS YOU CAN DO IT. THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. MY HEART GOES OUT TO THE FAMILIES AND FRIENDS OF THE VICTIMS. READING THE BOOK ALONE CANNOT EXPLAIN THE FEELING OF CLIMBING AT 29,000 FEET, IT MUST BE SCARY. THE IDEA THAT SOMEONE WOULD LET SOMEONE ELSE DIE ON A MOUNTAIN SO THAT THEY COULD CLIMB TO THE TOP IS ASTOUNDING. WHILE I UNDERSTAND IT, IT IS WILD. I COULD GO ON FOREVER, JUST READ THE BOOK.
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Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522095496
EAN: 9780553502190
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN: 0553502190
Label: Random House Audio
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Number Of Items: 6
Publication Date: April 06, 1998
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: April 06, 1998
Studio: Random House Audio
Sales Rank: 957271
Quentin Lawrence
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