Into Thin Air Blog

September 14, 2009, Edited September 21, 2009

Matthew Kruk

Grade 9

Novel Paragraphs

Into Thin Air is a nonfiction book about two main groups of adventurers who went to climb Mount Everest. This was an interesting read because it describes the individuals of the teams that went up and the experiences of people who did not reach the top whether because of lack of bottled oxygen or the extreme cold conditions or high altitudes. Though many suffered, many reached their goal of achieving victory over Mount Everest’s dangers. The book is written from the author’s perspective and he describes the backgrounds of the climbers and how they came to climb Mount Everest as well as the Sherpas who helped them.

My favourite character is Rob Hall - he was the head of one of the expedition groups. In the beginning of the book, the author describes an interesting rivalry between Rob Hall and the leader of a second expedition group, Scott Fisher. This drives the beginning of the book; catching my attention and making me want to read more. Rob Hall was a very courageous and helping person. He felt the responsibility to help other climbers. Rob Hall died trying to save another person who was too weak to climb down the mountain. Rob Hall to me was a hero.

There are many things that I like about this book. I like how the author describes all the climbers and did not stay on any one or two climbers for an excessive amount of time. I liked how the author describes all the climbers’ reasons for wanting to climb such a difficult and dangerous mountain. I think that the author did an excellent job writing this book.

Two quotes from the book that I thought were good are;

“The first body had left me badly shaken for several hours; the shock of encountering the second wore off almost immediately. Few of the climbers trudging by had even given either corpse more than a passing glance. It was as if there were an unspoken agreement on the mountain to pretend that these desiccated remains weren’t real - as if none of us dared to acknowledge what was at stake here.”

“Guy handed me a beer, Caroline gave me a hug, and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the ice with my hands in my hands and tears streaking down my cheeks, weeping like I hadn’t wept since I was a small boy. Safe now, the crushing strain of the preceding days lifted from my shoulders, I cried for my lost companions, I cried because I was grateful to be alive, I cried because I felt terrible for having survived while other had did died.”

I think these quotes are important because they show the character development of the author. The first quote describes how nobody saw the dangers of Mount Everest and how some people did not look at the dead corpses to even acknowledge that there was danger on Mount Everest. The second quote shows how the author has fully realised the dangers of the mountain and how so many people had died while he had survived. I think the quotes were good because they show the attitude of some climbers towards Mount Everest and how they did not truly realise how dangerous the mountain really was.