Into Thin Air: Revisited by Joe Cauteruccio
On Mount Everest in 1996 one of the most costly high altitude mountaineering accidents ever occurred. 8 climbers died, they were caught in a storm high on the mountain. At high altitude it is extremely hard to function normally, every step, every breath is a struggle. One man took his experience during this accident and turned it into a highly successful book, Into Thin Air by: John Krakauer. In his book Krakauer recaps his experiences of climbing the mountain and dealing with the disaster. He is extremely critical of a mountain madness guide Anatoli Boukreev. Throughout this article I intend to analyze the events, the actions of Krakauer and Boukreev, as well as their criticism of each other.
The trouble began during the summit push of a team lead by guide Rob Hall, they failed to adhere strictly to their turn around time thus being stranded on the mountain late in the day was a possibility. Another contributing factor was rope traffic below the summit. Teams traveling up the mountain were using the same ropes needed by teams traveling down the mountain. Krakauer made it down to high camp, Boukreev also returned. Krakauer believes that Boukreev was being somewhat lax in his guide duties. Boukreev elected not to make use of supplemental oxygen on this climb, Krakauer believes that this was an error on his part, however, in my opinion if any climber on that expedition was capable of climbing without oxygen it was Anatoli Boukreev. During his career Boukreev reached the top of Everest three times. He also has twelve summits of mountains over 8,000 meters and Boukreev conquered seven of the world's fourteen mountains over 8,000 meters in elevation, all without the use of supplementary oxygen. Boukreev's experience clearly dictates that he was capable of climbing without the use of supplemental oxygen.
After reaching the summit Boukreev went down to camp 4, Krakauer calls this a serious lack of judgment, however according to Anatoli he waited on the summit for the clients to arrive, only two did. After waiting Boukreev began to wonder if there was trouble on the mountain and made the decision to descend. His decent one could conclude was in preparation to assist climbers still left on the mountain. This was not a serious lack of judgment but a calculated decision. If Boukreev had stayed on the summit waiting for other clients in hours he would have been completely useless, even with supplemental oxygen it is almost impossible to remain aware and logical for prolonged periods of time at the summit of Everest. Staying on the summit could not have been expected of Boukreev and in my opinion his descent was the correct diction. There are only two criticisms I can derive from the fore mentioned situation, first Boukreev did not have a radio, as a guide it was his responsibility to remain in contact with the rest of his team during the climb. Second Boukreev did not carry a pack, he could have carried more oxygen for the clients, or radioed for more to have been brought up. However there were other guides on the mountain that day who could have preformed the same duty and did not. In my opinion Boukreev made up for these mistakes in his rescue of two climbers on the mountain, were it not for his bravery these climbers would have died. It is worth noting that during the storm Krakauer stayed in his tent. I am not surprised, nor am I criticizing Krakauer for this. It could not have been expected of him or any other client to go up the mountain in a storm to help in the rescue, it his however unfair to condemn Boukreev for his actions when he did go and help rescue.
I have one last criticism of John Krakauer, he needs to move on. Mountaineering by default is dangerous, all the guides and clients on the mountain that day knew this. Accidents are bound to happen, climbers will get injured and killed. It was a tragic event but he must stop relating it to other experiences. He climbed a spire in Antarctica, during the special a lot was done to relate his climb with the 96 Everest accident. During a climb on Vinson Massive, a route decision had to be made, weather to take a less vertical route through seracs, or to climb the head wall. Krakauer wanted to take the vertical route because of the danger of falling seracs, other climbers wanted to take the serac route because it would allow the inexperienced camera crew to travel up with them. Krakauer said that the camera crew would not be able to get through the serac route due to their inexperience, this happens every day on the Kumbu ice fall on Mt. Everest. There is risk in mountaineering, however it is calculated risk, Boukreev took a calculated risk in not bringing using oxygen bottles which he felt would be ultimately beneficial.
Sources: www.mountainzone.com National Geographic climbing special PBS climbing special Into Thin Air by: John Krakauer The Climb by: Anatoli Boukreev
