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

Fischer finally reaches the summit at 3:40pm. He complains to Lopsang, who was on the summit waiting for Scott, that he felt unwell. Lopsang convinces Fischer to start descending. Soon after, at 4:00 pm—two hours after Rob Hall’s original turnaround time—Hall sees Hansen approaching and rushes down to help him to the summit. At Hall’s urging, the two start descending immediately. Lopsang ensures that the two make it safely over a dangerous cornice near the beginning of the descent, then rushes ahead to help Fischer, descending ahead.

Hansen runs out of oxygen and collapses at the top of the Hillary Step; Hall urgently radios requesting that bottled oxygen be brought up from the South Summit. Harris, presumably hypoxic, continues to insist that there are no full oxygen canisters left. Eventually Groom, via radio, convinces him that there is oxygen. Lopsang encounters Harris when he passes down the South Summit. Andy begs Lopsang to help him bring oxygen up for Hall and Hansen—even offering him $500, but Lopsang insists that his responsibility lies with his own group and, in particular, Fischer, his own guide. Lopsang sees Harris—severely debilitated—begin traveling up toward the Hillary Step.

Fischer’s condition is also rapidly deteriorating. He opts to slide sections of the descent, which requires less exertion, but it is also very dangerous. He needs to climb across deep snow traverses to rejoin the route when he slides in the wrong direction. Fischer’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic. He tells Lopsang that he cannot go on and threatens to jump into what he claims to be Tibet. Lopsang tethers Fischer to him (240). The storm above rages with terrifying intensity; Lopsang recalls lightning striking very close to the pair numerous times.

They encounter Makalu Gau, the head of the Taiwanese expedition, with his two Sherpas. Gau is too weak to go on and his Sherpas leave him. Fischer collapses. Lopsang waits for an hour with him. Lopsang leaves Fischer, who cannot walk, with Gau, and rushes down the mountain to get help. Lopsang finds Boukreev, conveys Fischer and Gau’s location, and then collapses into his tent and falls asleep.

Meanwhile, numerous people try to convince Hall via radio that he needs to leave Hansen and proceed down the mountain, but he is unwilling to leave his client. Broken transmission overheard at 2:46 am sounds like Hall is willing Hansen to keep moving toward the South Summit, but in a transmission later in the morning Hall says that “Doug is gone” (234). Remarkably, Hall survives the night. Hall indicates via radio that Harris had been with him, but is no longer: at 8:43 am Rob slurs that “some of Andy’s gear is still here” (244). Those below continue to implore Rob to keep moving. He seems to suggest several times that he is preparing to get underway, but—exhausted and hypoxic—he fails to do so.

Sherpas Ang Dorje and Lhakpa Chiri leave Camp Four to rescue Hall, carrying oxygen and hot tea, but bad weather turns them around. Sherpas Tashi Tshering, Ngawang Sya Kya, and Tenzing Nuri manage to reach Fischer and Gau, who are lower than Hall. Fischer is unresponsive and close to death; he is deemed a lost cause. Gau is revived by tea and oxygen and the Sherpas begin to descend with him. Hall is connected to his wife in Christchurch via the radio; the last words heard from him are his sign off to her: “I love you. Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don’t worry too much” (247). Further attempts to contact Hall are unanswered. His body is found twelve days later by climbers on their way to the summit.

At around the same time Hansen is reaching the Everest summit with Hall’s assistance, a group of three Northern Indian climbers, from the province of Ladakh, also reach what they believe to be the summit, though they are actually 200 feet lower. At around 2 pm, three other expedition members notice the weather rolling in and opt to turn around earlier rather than make the summit attempt. The next day, Japanese climbers from another expedition pass the three Ladakhis in the snow, frostbitten, hypoxic, and unintelligible. Not wanting to compromise their own summit attempt, the Japanese climbers opt to leave the men and continue to climb, successfully reaching the summit and safely descending past the three men, one of whom is now dead. The frozen bodies of all three men are later found by members of the Ladakhi expedition who successfully reattempt the summit on May 17.

Andy Harris has died far above Camp Four, but Krakauer is still convinced he saw him the prior night. Having just given up on a fruitless search for Harris around the campsite, Krakauer is overwhelmed with the devastating death count wrought by the storm. With Groom completely incapacitated from his time in the storm, and Harris and Hall absent, Hutchison takes on a leadership role for the devastated and incapacitated group. Hutchison and two Sherpas go to inspect Weathers and Namba. Unbelievably, they are both still breathing. However, Hutchison and the Sherpas decide that the already depleted group can’t save them.

Beidleman leads the Mountain Madness group down to Camp Three; Boukreev waits for Fischer. As Mountain Madness descends the Lhotse Face toward Camp Three, a Sherpa come up to assist them is struck in the head by two large rocks from above, sending him into cardiopulmonary arrest and almost knocking him off the mountain. Beidleman and Klev Shoening wonder aloud—“what have we done to make this mountain so angry?” (262).

Members of other expeditions, the IMAX expedition, and the Alpine Ascents International expedition, graciously halt their plans to summit to assist the stricken members of the Mountain Madness and Adventure Consultants teams—supplying support, batteries for radios, and oxygen.

Meanwhile, at Camp Four, Beck Weathers miraculously walks into camp. The remaining members of his team wrap him in sleeping bags and supply him with oxygen, but they doubt he will survive the night. When the two Sherpas return with Gau but not Fischer, Boukreev intends to save Fischer himself, but Fischer is dead when Boukreev reaches him. Overnight, the wind blows Weather’s tent apart; he screams for hours, his hands too frostbitten to close the tent or cover himself in sleeping bags. Krakauer comes to his aid. Pete Athans and Todd Burleson, members of another expedition who come to Camp Four to aid Adventure Consultants, take over Weather’s care.

The remaining six members of the Adventure Consultants expedition (minus Yasuko Namba, Rob Hall, Andy Harris, and Doug Hansen, who are dead, and Beck Weathers, who remains at Camp Four) travel slowly down to Camp Two. Lopsang, Fischer’s Sirdar, tearfully tells Krakauer that it is his fault that Fischer is dead: “I am very bad luck, very bad luck. Scott is dead; it is my fault” (272).

The group reaches Camp Two, which has been set up as a field hospital. Soon after, Weathers—remarkably able to walk—is assisted down to Camp Two. Krakauer helps find a site where a helicopter can land. Gau and then Weathers are airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu. The rest of the group sets off through the Icefall for Base Camp.

Krakauer reaches Base Camp and bursts into tears of grief and relief. Fox and Groom are airlifted from Base Camp with frostbite, accompanied by John Taske, a doctor who will provide medical support during the flight. The remaining members of both expeditions, including Krakauer, leave Base Camp and are airlifted from the town of Periche to Kathmandu. Krakauer is approached by Yasuko Namba’s husband and brother, who want more information on Namba’s death. Krakauer, speaking through a translator, is unable to provide much information.

To escape reporters, Krakauer retreats to the privacy of his hotel room in Kathmandu. He smokes marijuana, and weeps—overcome. Back in Seattle, Krakauer is more grateful than ever for the ordinary comforts of modern life but struggles with grief after the Everest disaster. The partners of Rob Hall and Andy Harris contact him. Krakauer is particularly devastated by his failure to recognize Andy’s hypoxic state, and the confusion he caused Andy’s partner when reporting seeing him alive in Camp Four, causing her to celebrate prematurely. Krakauer also struggles to accept Yasuko Namba’s death, and feels guilt at his own proximity as she died on the South Col.

Krakauer reflects on the tragedy. He identifies causational factors: a failure to have pre-fixed lines, and to adhere to the predetermined turnaround time. Krakauer also draws attention to Hall’s sterling track record, wondering whether the celebrated guide “got a little cocky” (284). Krakauer also reflects that Rob Hall’s previous expeditions took place in consistently good weather; this may have led Hall to underestimate the risk of a storm. Furthermore, Fischer’s team’s success seems to cloud Hall’s judgment on May 10; he likely does not want to have only one of his eight clients (Jon Krakauer) reach the top, when all eight of Fischer’s clients attain it.

Krakauer concedes that “wisdom comes easily after the fact” (285). He emphasizes the effect of hypoxia and exhaustion on individuals’ decision-making, even that of celebrated mountaineers and guides. Rather than blaming individuals, Krakauer concludes that systems will inevitably fail on Everest. According to Krakauer, a ban on the use of bottled oxygen is a simple solution which, if enforced, will force less experienced climbers away from attempting the summit.

Weeks after the deaths on the Mountain Madness and Adventure Consultants teams, South African climber Bruce Herrod ascends the Everest summit hours after his teammates. He radios Base Camp to say he has successfully reached the top but is never heard from again.

Beck Weather’s right arm is amputated. All fingers from his left hand are removed, as well as his nose. Krakauer admires his positivity and determination in spite of his operations; he also admires Lou Kasischke, who has managed to move on from the tragedy and even identifies positive outcomes in his life. Krakauer, on the other hand, is still haunted daily by the disaster; he finds it hard to escape his feelings of guilt, grief, and remorse.

Krakauer reflects on the negative correspondence which he receives following the publication of his article in Outside magazine. Many concur with Krakauer that he’s responsible in part for the deaths of Yasuko Namba and Andy Harris, exacerbating Krakauer’s grief. Krakauer receives a scathing letter from Scott Fischer’s sister, critiquing his attempt to understand what all members of both expeditions think and feel. Krakauer learns soon after that Lopsang Jangbu, Fischer’s loyal Sirdar, has been killed in an avalanche on Everest. Krakauer reflects on the words of a Sherpa orphan. She vows never to return to her country of origin, where fellow Nepalese commit the sin of “help[ing] outsiders find their way into the sanctuary” of Sagarmathaji—mother goddess of the earth, “and violate every limb of her body by standing on top of her, crowing in victory, and dirtying and polluting her bosom” (299).

Many members of the 1996 expeditions are the subject of public vilification and criticism, most notably Sandy Pittman. Neal Beidleman struggles with his grief, in particular with the memory of Yasuko’s hand sliding off his arm as he leaves to help other climbers back to Camp Four.