# Read the first page of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Read the opening of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer free, no signup. A journalist recounts a deadly expedition to Everest's summit. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/into-thin-air-jon-krakauer - Genre: Narrative nonfiction - Year: 1997 - ISBN: 9780679457527 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9780679457527&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9780679457527 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9780679457527 ## The opening It would seem almost as though there were a cordon drawn round the upper part of these great peaks beyond which no man may go. The truth of course lies in the fact that, at altitudes of 25,000 feet and beyond, the effects of low atmospheric pressure upon the human body are so severe that really difficult mountaineering is impossible and the consequences even of a mild storm may be deadly, that nothing but the most perfect conditions of weather and snow offers the slightest chance of success, and that on the last lap of the climb no party is in a position to choose its day.. No, it is not remarkable that Everest did not yield to the first few attempts; indeed, it would have been very surprising and not a little sad if it had, for that is not the way of great mountains. Perhaps we had become a little arrogant with our fine new technique of ice-claw and rubber slipper, our age of easy mechanical conquest. We had forgotten that the mountain still holds the master card, that it will grant success only in its own good time. Why else does mountaineering retain its deep fascination? Eric Shipton, in 1938 Upon That Mountain / Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care. JUN KRAKATER It was early in the afternoon of May 10, 1996. I hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours. The only food I'd been able to force down over the preceding three days was a bowl of ramen soup and a handful of peanut M&Ms. Weeks of violent coughing had left me with two separated ribs that made ordinary breathing an excruciating trial. At 29,028 feet up in the troposphere, so little oxygen was reaching my brain that my mental capacity was that of a slow child. Under the cir- cumstances, I was incapable of feeling much of anything except cold and tired. I'd arrived on the summit a few minutes after Anatoli Boukreev, a Russian climbing guide working for an American commercial expedition, and just ahead of Andy Harris, a guide on the New Zealand-based team to which I belonged. Although I was only slightly acquainted with Boukreev, I'd come to know and like Harris well during the preceding six weeks. I snapped four quick photos of Harris and Boukreev striking summit poses, then turned and headed down. My watch read 1:17 P.M. All told, I'd spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world. A moment later, 1 paused to take another photo, this one looking down the Southeast Ridge, the route we had ascended. Training my lens on a pair of climbers approaching the summit, I noticed some- thing that until that moment had escaped my attention. To the south, where the sky had been perfectly clear just an hour earlier, a blanket of clouds now hid Pumori, Ama Dablam, and the other lesser peaks surrounding Everest. Later—after six bodies had been located, after a search for two others had been abandoned, after surgeons had amputated the gangrenous right hand of my teammate Beck Weathers—people would ask why, if the weather had begun to deteriorate, had climbers on the upper mountain not heeded the signs? ## Books with a similar feel - [The Lost City of Z by David Grann](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-lost-city-of-z-david-grann.md) - [The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-devil-in-the-white-city-erik-larson.md) - [The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks-rebecca-skloot.md) - [Bad Blood by John Carreyrou](https://uncovered.ink/read/bad-blood-john-carreyrou.md) - [Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall & Lisa Pulitzer](https://uncovered.ink/read/stolen-innocence-elissa-wall-and-lisa-pulitzer.md) - [Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://uncovered.ink/read/between-the-world-and-me-ta-nehisi-coates.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.