Jon Krakauer, esteemed, well known writer, of very successful books, such as: Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains and bestseller, Into The Wild, embarks on a journey for only the privileged and outstanding capability of few people to climb the world’s highest mountain. Into Thin Air is a true tale of the tragedy that unfolds at extremely high altitudes in the Spring of 1996 for Everest climbers.

May of 1996 was a grave year for Everest hopefuls. For Krakauer’s group and others summiting at the same time, the earlier weeks had been fairly good weather, but for the summit push on May 10th a life threatening storm would take the lives of 12 people. Shocking deaths will occur with the occasional good moments. This story is full of good people willing to help and risk their own lives to save others.

Krakauer is great writer who has the ability to make you feel like you are engulfed in the all the action. Krakauer talks in depth of all important characters and how and/or why they were there for this frightening journey. His style of writing is well rounded, descriptive, and reflective. The writer, in my opinion, portrays all characters with full detail and never tries to make them sound at fault, if not need be. While that is my opinion, Krakauer received nasty letters from many angered outsiders and loved ones of people who died up there on that treacherous expedition. They had feelings of anguish for Krakauer’s portrayal of these people, they felt he made it sound as if they could have done more and gave up and Krakauer never did anything to help either. Only the people who have been up there know the limitations of that moment and how hard it can be to make such important decisions.

While overall I felt the book was well written, it contained a lot of information of things that could have been left out. Many different people were talked about, past and present, and confused me. Also specific details of other expeditions that didn’t change the outlook on the book were mentioned. So, in my opinion I felt it wasn’t necessary but still a great piece.

Into Thin Air is a thrilling read, for people wanting to experience the horrific conditions, life or death decisions, and real, live action of surviving Everest.