Originally published on Goodreads

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer’s personal account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster where a sudden blizzard would kill 8 people. Until that date it was the deadliest day on Mount Everest.

Krakauer writes from his own perspective and admits that some details of the book may be wrong because of the lack of oxygen and bad memory. Nonetheless Krakauer recounts the story as well as he can by tying together interviews of other survivors, transmission logs and his own memories. The result is an extremely well-written book that captures the emotion that the climbers must have felt on top of the mountain. Krakauer’s writing style is mostly clear and direct which makes it easier to follow what happened. Krakauer is especially good at imparting the mentality of mountain climbers and almost made me consider climbing Mount Everest myself.

One fault I found was that it was highly subjective. Krakauer does admit that it is subjective but on several occasions the descriptions of certain people felt a bit akin to character assassination without any reason or justification.

Despite this I would not hesitate to recommend Into Thin Air for anyone who is interested in adventure, mountains or have been in Nepal to trek. Just read the book knowing that it is a subjective account.

4 out of 5 stars.