In chapter 18 of Into Thin Air,
Krakauer explains the attempt of three Ladakhis’s climb to the summit. The
conditions were so bad on the mountain that they thought they had reached the
summit at 4:00 P.M., when really they were 500 feet below the summit. That’s why they never passed Hansen, Lopsang,
or Hall at the top. In such harsh
conditions like these, other teams are not looking to help; they need to
survive themselves. Shigekawa says, “We were too tired to help. Above 8,000
meters is not a place where people can afford morality” (253). This is hard to
think about in our society because we all would like to help people who are
hurt, but up in such high altitudes with less oxygen and high winds, it’s
unrealistic. Three of the Indian men (Smanla, Morup, Palijor) were found dead
on May 17th, and they were left where they fell.
Without guides, Krakauer’s team
needed someone to lead. Stuart Hutchinson, a medical researcher from Montreal,
decided to step into the position. One morning, Hutchinson stumbled on the
bodies of Namba and Beck. They were twenty feet apart from each other and only
their hands and feet were sticking out of the ice. Miraculously, they both were
breathing, but Hutchinson could tell they weren’t going to make it, so he left
them. He was shaken, but he made the right decision. Later, Beck somehow
survives and makes it back to camp. Boukreev also goes back to find Fischer
from seeing Weathers alive, but by the time he returns Fischer is dead. With
the death count rising altitude getting to everyone’s head, it’s hard to stay
sane in difficult situations. I like this quote by Krakauer; he says, “I
wondered if I had begun the downward spiral into the nightmarish territory of
the mad” (257). It explains how Krakauer realizes he is making mistakes that he
usually wouldn’t make, questioning his sanity.
In chapter 20, everyone makes it
down to Camp Two and find plenty of resources they needed. A helicopter came
and landed. It first took Gau because he seemed to be in worse shape than
Weathers, but the helicopter came back for Beck shortly. Krakauer realizes what
he had been through in the past 72 hours. It’s hard for him to comprehend, but
he gets through it and makes his way down to the Icefall. In the final chapter,
Krakauer has a hard time dealing with everything that had happened on the
mountain. He begins crying and doesn’t want to deal with any of the reporters.
He speaks to Rob Hall’s wife and has a more difficult time talking about him
than she does. Krakauer ends the chapter with facts about the other
expeditions. Would you go on a trip like this if you knew how much it would
impact your life emotionally?
-April Cust