Jon Krakauer, author and mountain climber, is hired by Outside Magazine to write an article about the commercialism on Mount Everest. Krakauer decides he wants to climb the mountain, and joins the most disastrous Everest expedition in history.
Krakauer joins the climbing service called Adventure Consultants, guided by Rob Hall. The guide service is intended to speed up the acclimatization process and guide the climbers successfully to the summit of Mount Everest.
The climb is structure into camps: Base Camp, Camp One, Camp Two, Camp Three and Camp Four. After spending weeks at Base Camp, the group makes a number of trips up to the other camps to speed up the acclimatization process. In the beginning of May, the gr oup makes a summit push.
Throughout the climb, Krakauer details his teammates, his guides and other expeditions on the mountain. He tries to piece together a continuous timeline of the events that take place in the weeks they are on the mountain.
All of the clients have difficulty adjusting to the altitude, tiring easily, losing weight and moving slowly. The climbers' experience in mountain climbing and at high altitudes varies—some of them are quite qualified, others very inexperienced and highly reliant on the guides.
Despite a number of mishaps, the first death does not actually occur until Chapter 11. From that point on, though, death is something all the climbers become familiar with.
The actual summit push is when everything begins to fall apart. Rob Hall appoints a 2:00 pm turn-around time, meaning that everyone who has not actually reached the summit by then must turn around, no matter how close he or she is. That day, only Krakauer and a few other climbers make it to the top before 2:00 pm. Members of his group reach the top as late as 4:00 pm—the turn around time is not enforced. Among the later arrivals to the top is Rob Hall and another member, Doug Hansen. They arrive jus t behind another climbing group guided by Scott Fischer.
A storm hits the summit that afternoon, and Krakauer catches only the tail end of it before he successfully reaches the refuse of Camp Four. Krakauer is well ahead of most of his teammates and has no idea what lies in store for them.
Hall and Hansen get stranded. Hansen runs out of supplemental oxygen and cannot continue. Another group gets lost in the blizzard and later, an assistant guide rescues all but two of them. The remaining two are left, presumably dead.
Fischer also gets stranded, and when he is finally found, he is dead. Hansen dies and one of Hall's Sherpas tries to rescue Hall, but cannot climb high enough. A guide assistant dies trying to rescue Hall and Hansen.
One of the two clients left for dead, Beck Weathers, actually makes it back to camp and miraculously survives the ordeal. He eventually undergoes a number of amputation and surgeries for his injuries. All told, a dozen people die on Everest that season, a nd Krakauer, originally there to report on the business of taking people up the mountain, cannot forget what he sees there.
After Krakauer publishes his article, he writes this book because he feels he has more to say. He has done extensive research and conducted interviews with all of the survivors, and has information that he didn't have at the time he wrote the article. His opinion is that the events that happened on the mountain deserve to be told in a thorough and accurate a manner and possible. He spends a considerable amount of time reflecting on what happened and how it has changed his life forever. Krakauer struggles with survivor's guilt and a redefined view on mortality and addresses questions about events on the mountain that perhaps don't have answers. Krakauer acknowledges and apologizes for any pain or anger his book might arose in the friends and families of vi ctims, but is undeterred from detailing the events, be they heroic, selfish or tragic.
Jon Krakauer - The narrator and the author. Krakauer is hired to write an article about Mount Everest for an adventure magazine, and ends up going on the most disastrous expedition in Everest history. He survives, and writes a novel intended to provide a thorough and accurate account of the disaster.
Rob Hall - The head guide of Adventure Consultants, the Everest climbing service that guides Krakauer up the mountain. Hall is an esteemed climber, having summated the tallest mountain in each of the seven continents in a period of only seven months. He also develops a sterling reputation as an Everest Guide.
Andy Harris - A guide in Rob Hall's expedition. Harris is from New Zealand, and grows close to Krakauer during the climb. Krakauer holds himself accountable for Harris's death.
Mike Groom - An Australian guide with Adventure Consultants. Groom gets lost with a group of clients during the descent, but survives. He also guides Beck Weathers down the mountain when Beck goes blind.
Ang Dorje Sherpa - Rob Hall's number one Sherpa. Ang performs with near heroics frequently during the ascent, always helping other climbers and exhausting himself with the effort he exerts for others. He attempts to find Hall during the summit, but cannot climb high enough.
Doug Hansen - A client with Adventure Consultants. Hansen is a postal worker who climbed Everest one year before but had to turn back just a few hundred feet from the summit. He and Krakauer become close friends. Hansen is at the summit with Hall when the storm hits on May, 10.
Beck Weathers {Beck, Weathers, Beck Weathers) - One of the novel's heroes, Weathers is a doctor with a passion for mountain climbing. He is left for dead after a group of clients get lost in a storm, but amazingly regains consciousness and manages to get to camp. Despite suffering numerous physical ailments he descends the mountain and survives.
Yasuko Namba - Yasuko Namba and Beck Weathers are left for dead when their group gets lost on the way down the mountain. Namba is a Japanese woman whose attempt to climb Everest gained much notoriety in Japan. Unlike Weathers she cannot summon the strength to return to camp, and dies.
Stuart Hutchinson - A Canadian client with Adventure Consultants. Hutchinson is a strong climber, and when Hall and the other guides are stranded on the mountain, he steps in as leader.
Scott Fischer - The head guide of the Mountain Madness expedition group. Fischer and Hall are friends and competitors. Fischer is a renowned climber infamous for being having survived some terrible falls. Fischer gets seriously ill about halfway through the climb, but climbs undeterred.
Anatoli Boukreev - A guide with Scott Fischer's group, Boukreev is a world-respected climber who had previously summated Everest with no supplemental oxygen. He rescues the group of climbers stranded in the storm, but is also thought to have contributed to the disaster by descending far ahead of his clients.
Neal Beidleman - Another excellent climber, Beidleman is a guide with Fischer's service. He is consistent as a climber and a guide, and is instrumental in saving the lives of his clients during the summit descent.
Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa - Fischer's main Sherpa. Lopsang is exceedingly loyal to Fischer, and helps secure ropes and haul supplies all the way up the mountain. Most notably, he pulls Sandy Pittman up the mountain when she is too tired to climb herself. Lopsang tries to save Fischer after the storm hits, but cannot.
Tim Madsen - Madsen is a client with Scott Fischer's guide service. He is among the clients lost during the storm, and he stays behind to look after the ailing climbers while Beidleman goes back to find Boukreev who then rescues Madsen's group.
Ian Woodall - The leader of the South African expedition. It is rumored that Woodall is dishonest, corrupt and somewhat crazy, and Krakauer's group has a number of unpleasant encounters with Woodall, including during the storm when Woodall refuses to loan his radio for use in a rescue attempt.
Makalu Gau - The leader of the Taiwanese climbing group. The Taiwanese are known to be inexperienced and dangerous climbers, and during the storm at the summit Gau is abandoned by his Sherpas. Members of Hall and Fischer's teams save Gau.
Sandy Pittman - An employee of NBC who is along on the expedition to dispatch media files. This is her third attempt to climb Everest and she was at one time in contention to be the first woman to successfully climbed the highest mountain in each of the seven continents. Lopsang virtually drags her up the mountain at one point, but she reaches the top.
Krakauer has a multi-faceted role in this book. First and foremost, he is a . . .
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