Catch Your Breath

Title: Into Thin Air
Author: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: Doubleday
Rating: A+

While reading this book, I often found myself catching my breath. It actually made me breathe differently. Jon Krakauer's account of his personal Everest expedition is riveting, to say the least. It is well written, but it is the story itself that makes this a page-turner. Although you somewhat know the ending before you even open the book -- disaster -- the details of events leading up to the tragedies high on the world's tallest mountain are well displayed.

Krakauer shares with the reader personal descriptions of his teammates and others on the mountain with him throughout this journey. He does an excellent job of shaping personalities, conflicts and relationships between all the people involved. But the main character, Mt. Everest herself, looms over everyone. She is the protagonist and the antagonist. Her shadow blankets everyone in the novel -- even those who aren't on the mountain.

The historical facts the author shares of others who have climbed or succumbed to Everest help set the stage for the events that occurred May 10, 1996. These facts help give the reader an idea of how experienced or inexperienced the current cast of characters may be, though experience meant little in the end of this tale.

When Krakauer describes the amount of supplies it takes for an expedition of this sort, the number of Sherpas and guides at hand, and how nowadays if you've got the money, you've got the means to get up there, one wonders, "Could I climb to the top of Everest?" But as he describes the ascent from one camp to the next, going higher and higher up the mountain, from 16,000 to 24,000 and up all the way past 29,000 feet, as a reader I felt my breaths shorten, my chest tighten. And I'm down here at 5280 ft.

This is an amazing adventure, filled with twists and turns. But many people lost their lives. It is a heart-wrenching and guilt-ridden account. But it is an incredible reminder of how small and insignificant we are in the face of Mother Nature and her elements.