Into Thin Air

It’s not a book that someone like me – who prefers planting both feet firmly on terra firma at all possible times and who shivers during what pass as winter months in the humid city of Mumbai – would have normally picked out. Why, the name and the front cover are enough to give me a bad attack of vertigo!

But I picked out “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer because it said that it gives a “Personal Account of the Everest Disaster”. The disaster he referred to happened on 9th May, 1996, when five expeditions were launched on the summit of Mount Everest but fierce storm broke out and claimed the lives of 9 climbers.

The writer gives a good historical summary of the discovery and early summiting attempts made on the Everest. I never knew that the locals – the Tibetans and Nepalis – had their own names for the mountain. The Tibetans call it Jomolungma (Goddess, mother of the world and the Nepalis - Sagarmatha (Goddess of the sky). I know - those of us who know Hindi will say that Sagarmatha literally would mean the head or crown of the seas. It’s a pity that Sir Andrew Waugh, India’s surveyor general at the time of discovery of this “Roof of the World”, ignored these ancient names – despite the official policy encouraging retention of local names - and chose to name it after his predecessor, Sir George Everest. The local names are so meaningful! But then that’s the British for you. They really believed that the sun will never set on their so-called empire!

As the book progresses we get an insider’s view on how much goes into arranging a “Himalayan” expedition (pun intented!). I was amazed by the tenacity and courage of those who choose to go on such excursions. The author is right – you need to be beyond all logic to embark on one. The list of things that can go wrong and the diseases that can claim life in a jiffy at such high altitudes took me aback.

And then, finally the author describes 9th May, 1996 in all its chilling twists and turns. Murphy’s Law couldn’t have applied in a more sinister manner anywhere. Small errors aided by the sluggish mental faculties at high altitude added up to bring about a tragedy of gigantic proportions. If I was horrified at reading that the bodies of those who perished in past expeditions are still on the mountain, I was chilled to the marrow on reading that the climbers simply walk past such bodies on their way to the summit!

For those of us who have never attempted such mountaineering, the thought of not assisting anyone who is sure to die if left unattended sounds macabre – even inhuman – but as that Japanese climber said, probably, no one can afford morality at such “lofty” heights. Ironic, isn’t it?

A must-read - even if just to make yourself aware of how fragile life’s thread can be and of how men and women choose to touch the skies despite that!