Into Thin Air: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

On May 10, each person in Hall’s team carries a 6.6-pound oxygen bottle, and is supposed to pick up a spare after arriving at the South Summit, a check-in point near the summit of Everest, just below the Hillary Step. The bottles can’t last much longer than 4 or 5 pm, meaning that climbing Everest that day is a race against the clock.

Hall expected that there would be Sherpas accompanying the team to the summit. However, it’s likely that the violent gale on the night of May 9 prevented Sherpas from climbing alongside the team. In any case, the absence of Sherpas on the morning of May 10 means that new ropes haven’t been placed on the mountain slope for the climbers to use. Lopsang has since claimed that, the night before, Hall and Fischer decided not to fix ropes because they received the “erroneous information” that another team had already fixed the ropes the day before.

Krakauer and Ang Dorje arrive at the Balcony—the steep mountain slope leading up to the summit—around 5:30 am. Krakauer and Ang Dorje could install ropes, but Hall has ordered them to stay with the group; installing ropes would involve running ahead. Furthermore, Ang Dorje is in an irritable mood, and has been complaining that he’s doing too much of Lopsang’s work. As a result, neither Ang Dorje nor Krakauer installs ropes on the Balcony.

When other team members arrive at the Balcony, the guides begin to install ropes: they climb up to the top of the balcony with ropes tied to their bodies and then hold the ropes as their clients climb up. At this point, the inexperience of Yasuko Namba “nearly caused a disaster.” Yasuko is a brave woman, but she has no experience with high-altitude mountaineering. She is so singularly focused on making it to the top of the mountain that morning that she almost puts her full body weight on a rope before her partner has anchored his position. Had she done so, her partner could have fallen to his death.

As the morning goes on, there is a “traffic jam” at the Balcony. Too many clients are trying to climb up at the same time, and they all move very slowly. Another problem: Hall hasn’t officially announced a turn-around time—he’d suggested either 1 pm or 2 pm, but hasn’t committed to either one. Hutchinson, Kasischke, and Taske assume that the turnaround time is 1 pm—as a result, they decide to go back to Camp Four when it becomes clear that they’d never make it to the summit by 1. This is an incredibly difficult decision, since they’ve spent close to 100,000 dollars to climb to the top of Mount Everest. And yet, in the end, these three climbers “were among the few who made the right choice that day.”

Around 11 am, Krakauer is with three guides, Andy Harris, Neal Beidleman (working for Scott Fischer), and Anatoli Boukreev (also working for Fischer), approaching the Hillary Step, the last major obstacle before the summit of Everest. Krakauer notices that Boukreev uses no supplemental oxygen—something that doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of his clients. He also notices that Boukreev doesn’t have a backpack—which, ordinarily, would be full of first-aid supplies and clothes. Boukreev carried both oxygen and a backpack from Camp Four; however, he passed them to Beidleman before reaching the Balcony—he didn’t think he needed either.

Krakauer and the guides proceed toward the summit, stopping to inhale condensed oxygen every three or four paces. After about half an hour, they reach the Hillary Step. Boukreev, the senior guide, goes first, extending a rope behind him as he walks. Although Boukreev does a good job, Krakauer worries that he’ll run out of oxygen before 2 pm. He tells Beidleman his concern, and Beidleman allows him to hurry on, rather than lagging behind to string up his rope. Krakauer moves toward the summit, feeling very lightheaded. Time seems to slow down. When he finally reaches the summit, “any impulse … toward self-congratulation was extinguished by overwhelming apprehension about the long, dangerous descent that lay ahead.”