Recently my sister told me I should read "Into Thin Air," a book about climbing Mr. Everest. As she talked about it I remembered faintly what the book was about; a survivor's story of two expeditions to the top of Mr. Everest that were caught in a sudden horrific storm. I had wondered at the time (1996) what would ever impel a person to put themselves into such precarious circumstances, so I was interested to read the book.
Let's just say — I'll not be climbing Everest anytime soon!
The author was a mountain climbing addict who wrote for a sporting magazine to make a living. He proposed to the magazine that they pay for him to make the climb (not a cheap proposition — approximately $65,000 at that time to climb Everest) and he would write an article for their magazine about it. They agreed and he was off, but not without some reservations. These reservations increased when he was flying into Nepal and realized that his jet was flying level with the top of Everest. 29,000 and some odd feet.
His account of the experience was both fascinating and bewildering to me. Fascinating to see the enormous operation an excursion to climb Everest is, especially the base camp and other camps. Fascinating to see how difficult it was to acclimate their bodies to the high altitude. And bewildering. Why on EARTH would anyone decide they wanted to climb a mountain 29,000 feet high? Why would they be willing to live for several weeks in the base camp in boredom, surrounded by trash and excrement? Why would they want an experience that culminated in such oxygen deprivation (even with supplemental oxygen) that the moment of reaching the summit was only slightly registered by the oxygen-starved brain? And why would they put themselves in such danger?
Hopefully I will never understand. And I'm serving notice right now. Russ, kids — no one is climbing Everest!
Posts
I haven't read this one, but I've read Krakauer's other book - Into the Wild. Completely crazy - about a boy who graduated from college and took a trip into the Alaskan bush and died. Truly insane.
ReplyDeleteI read that book in college only to realize that Beck Wethers, the guy whose hands freeze off, had just come to Duke to speak and I had missed it because I didn't know who he was! Wouldn't you love to hear him? Maybe he'll come back and we can go together:). Did you know that that same author wrote a (sort-of) anti-mormon book? My mom read it with her book club and said that she ended up defending the Church, which was very surprising to me.
ReplyDeleteYeah . . . that Beck Weathers guy also lost his nose, didn't he? I'll never forget that part. I read it years ago. And said EXACTLY the same thing to Craig. Thing is, climbing high mountains is something he would love to do. Maybe he was a little disappointed then, but now that we have children he recognizes the folly!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I will have to add it to my list.
ReplyDeleteShoot, now I'll have to see if I can get that deposit back on the 2015 Everest climb I had as a surprise for you.
ReplyDeleteIt makes a great beach read-you stay cool reading it because the characters in the book are freezing to death! I loved the book. I spent the entire time asking people around me "why on earth would anyone go somewhere that your body starts dying as soon as you get there?" Doesn't that seem like a clear sign from God not to go there? (Krakauer needs a bar of soap in his mouth!)
ReplyDelete