To icy heights

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In icy heights (original title: Into Thin Air ) is a factual report by the American author, journalist and mountaineer Jon Krakauer , whodealswith the tragic events on Mount Everest in May 1996. The book became a million-fold bestseller and served as a template for the film In icy Heights - Die on Mount Everest and for the theater performance by Triada Kovalenko, Elisabeth Krefta, Melchior B. Tacet and Lennart Wilm.

background

In March 1996, the American journalist and climber Jon Krakauer was commissioned by the American magazine Outside to take part in a commercial expedition to the summit of Mount Everest to write a report on the "commercialization of Everest". Initially planned only as a multi-page report in Outside Magazine, the unexpected drama of the events during the ascent to the summit led Krakauer to publish his experiences as a book.

Krakauer joined the team at New Zealand company Adventure Consultants, led by experienced New Zealand high altitude climber Rob Hall .

At the time of the expedition, there were other commercially run groups on Mount Everest , including a team from the American company Mountain Madness led by the experienced high-altitude mountaineer Scott Fischer .

Krakauer describes in the book the preparations for the expedition as well as the meticulous sequence of the ascent of the summit, during which several climbers died after an unexpected change in weather due to exhaustion, freezing and falls. (→ Main article: Accident on Mount Everest (1996) )

Stations

The order of the chapters in the book is not chronological. The first chapter takes place on the summit of Everest. The actual sequence of ascension was:

  • Phakding ( Khumbu region) (2800 m) March 31, 1996
  • Lobuje (4938 m) April 8, 1996
  • Base camp (5330 m) April 12, 1996
  • Camp Eins (5950 m) April 13, 1996
  • Camp Two (6500 m) April 28, 1996
  • Lhotse flank (7150 m) April 29, 1996
  • Camp Three (7300 m) May 9, 1996
  • Southeast ridge (8400 m) May 10, 1996
  • Summit (8848 m) May 10, 1996
  • South Col (7900 m) May 11, 1996

The stations at different heights were used for acclimatization .

controversy

The publication of the book led to fierce controversy with the Russian high-altitude climber Anatoli Bukrejew , who lives in Kazakhstan , and the Nepalese climber Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa. Both behavior during the expedition is in part heavily criticized in Krakauer's book. What is remarkable about the following exchange of blows is the fact that it was carried out in public (as letters to the editor in Outside Magazine). Later on, Bukreev felt compelled to publish a book of his own with the American journalist G. Weston DeWalt entitled The Summit , which describes the events from his point of view. As a result, Bukrejew and Krakauer met and were largely able to settle the dispute. Shortly after the publication of his book, Bukreev died in an avalanche accident on the Annapurna .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Answers by Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa and Anatoli Bukrejew to the article by Jon Krakauer in What Really Happened In The Thin Air - Climbers Who Were There Discuss the Events of May 10, 1996 , MountainZone.com

literature