Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

How does Krakauer use foreshadowing in the opening chapters to hint at the later tragedy?

Rob Hall is characterized as meticulous and cautious. How do his errors on Everest illustrate Krakauer’s point that “on Everest it is the nature of systems to break down with a vengeance?” (287).

Krakauer critiques Anatoli Boukreev for ascending without bottled oxygen and descending ahead of his clients. Do you believe that Boukreev is culpable?

How does Krakauer depict Everest? How does he juxtapose Everest’s beauty with its danger?

What do the corpses on the slopes of Everest symbolize?

Do you believe that Western tourism has had a positive or negative effect on the Sherpas’ quality of life in the Khumbu Valley? Draw from textual evidence to support your response.

Discuss some of the decisions made by guides, clients, and Sherpas leading to the tragedy. Also, which causational factors tragedy were totally out of the climbers’ control? Which factors do you think were most important?

Shigekawa, a Japanese climber who failed to help ailing members of an Indian expedition, explains that “we were too tired to help. Above 8,000 meters is not a place where people can afford morality” (253). Do you agree with the Japanese team’s decision and with Shigekawa’s statement? Why or why not?