Into Thin Air

I just finished the book Into Thin Air by John Krakeur. It was an intense biography about climbing Mt. Everest. The main character, was one of the few survivors, while 8 died. It is true that the number of people that died that season is about the normal, but the unusual thing is how they all died. The main reason for their deaths was lack of good judgement. The guides caused a bottleneck at Hillary's Step, a tricky part of climbing on Everest. Because of this, not many people got to the summit before turnaround time. If you are not at the top by turnaround time, the group turns around. No one turned around, although several groups reached the summit hours after the scheduled time. The guides of the expeditions had several inexperienced Sherpas and assistants leading their clients up Everest. Several of these Sherpas had never summited Everest. This was a very intense, well written book. There was some controversy, though, as some of the facts may not be accurate. The author did his best to remember what happened that awful day, but for several hours, he was above 20,000 feet, without oxygen. If he like intense, addicting books, you'll like this one!