Into Thin Air Book Analysis Essay Example

Mount Everest, the most deadly challenge a climber could take on. Jon Krakauer and fifteen other amateurs took on the deadly challenge to defeat the mountain. Three different teams were trapped in a storm and battled high winds and the exceedingly lethal effects of altitude sickness, the 1996 season was the most deadly in the history of Everest. As seen in the novel Into Thin Air, the issue of man versus nature and lack of morality between their group and other expeditions lead to their defeat while climbing Everest. 

One of the causes that led Jon and his exposition to be defeated by Everest was man versus nature. Mount Everest is notorious for its extremely lethal weather conditions. Between high-speed winds and exceptionally low temperatures, many things could go wrong within minutes. People within three different expeditions were caught in a raging storm causing many deaths. They felt so desperate to make it out alive but, the extreme hypothermia made it exceptionally difficult, “Beidleman, Gromm, the two sherpas, and the seven clients staggered blindly around in the storm growing even more exhausted and hypothermic” (Jon 27). Between the mental stress, the physical pain, and the lack of oxygen, a storm was the last thing they needed. Another example of when nature led to their defeat on Everest is when their leader Rob Hall died because of hypothermia. “Sounding annoyed, halled , fired back, look if I thought I could manage the knots on the fixed ropes with frostbitten hands, I would have gone down six hours ago” (Jon 246). This was before Rob Hall, a very important leader, died and the issue of hypothermia and intense frostbite made it almost impossible to get down safely. Losing a very important leader was very bad and caused a lot of  issues because there was no guide. Because of the extremely brutal conditions on mount everest and the issue of Man vs.  Nature leads to their defeat on everest.

Another determining factor that led to the defeat was lack of morality and values. There are multiple examples of when they didn’t follow their values and caused many problems to their own group and others. For example, "When it came time for each of us to assess our own abilities and weigh them against the formidable challenge of the world's highest mountain, it sometimes seemed as though half the population at Base Camp was clinically delusional. But perhaps this shouldn't have come as a surprise. Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, hopeless romantics, and others with a shaky hold on reality” (Jon 88). Most people were not there for the right reasons and were just there for publicity and Jon often wondered if his teammates would betray him or leave him behind if he was close to dying so they could make it to the top instead for the publicity. Another example of when lack of morality took over lead to the defeat on Everest was when they were talking about putting themselves first and being selfish and not helping others.” Above 8,000 meters is not a place where people can afford morality” (Jon 98). At a certain point of the mountain they became numb to people dying and always put themselves first and were not thinking of their morals and values during that point. Only after he made it down the mountain the guilt sank in and he felt guilty for not trying harder to save peoples lives.

With all of their circumstances between insane weather disasters and lack of morals and values it led to their defeat on Everest. When weather strikes and takes a turn for the worst many will go wrong and cause them to get defeated. The loss of Rob Hall, the setbacks with weather and not following morals made the devastating defeat on Everest. This brought lots of guilt for Jon when he was off the mountain. Jon questioned whether or not the climb was worth the survivors' guilt and shame of being defeated. Once you are wrapped up in surviving you don't think clearly about others or decisions which will lead you to defeat.