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1、PRE-COURSE READINGEXTRACTS FROM INTO THIN AIR JON KRAKAUER (1997)Background to the 1996 Everest ExpeditionIn the early 1990s Rob Hall made a considerable name for himself in the mountaineering fraternity by summitting the highest mountains on each of the seven continents in only seven months.In an a
2、ttempt to capitalise on this and generate long term prospects in professional climbing, he and a partner established a company called Adventure Consultants. This company would specialise in high altitude guiding taking paying clients up and back down the seven- summits. Convinced that there would be
3、 enough potential clients with ample cash, but insufficient experience, Adventure Consultants was born.About the same time, a number of other climbers had similar ideas. Several companies specialising in high altitude guiding were launched. Amongst these was Mountain Madness, headed by Scott Fischer
4、. In 1994 Fischer ascended Everest without supplemental oxygen, and a couple of years later he led a high profile ascent of Kilimanjaro that netted half a million dollars for the charity CARE.Most of the companies in the high-altitude guiding market were only barely making a profit. In 1995 Fischer
5、took home only about $12,000. Future profitability depended on the ability to attract high profile clients, who would spend large amounts to join an expedition, and then to get them safely up and down the mountain.With both Hall and Fischer mounting expeditions to Everest in the spring of 1996, the
6、scene was set for some friendly competition between the two. Jon Krakauer, a journalist and experienced mountain climber approached both organisations to discuss joining their teams as a client. In return for a discount, he would write a number of high profile articles in Outside Magazine a publicat
7、ion widely read by climbing enthusiasts in North America. He eventually decided to climb with Rob Hall and Adventure Consultants.On May 9th 1996, five expeditions launched an assault on the summit of Mount Everest. The conditions seemed perfect. Twenty-four hours later one climber had died and 23 ot
8、her men and women were caught in a desperate struggle for their lives as they battled against a ferocious storm that threatened to tear them from the mountain. In all eight climbers died that day in the worst tragedy Everest has ever seen.Jon Krakauer, an accomplished climber, joined a commercial ex
9、penditure run by guides for paying clients, many of whom had little or no climbing experience. In Into Thin Air he gives a thorough and chilling account of the ill-fated climb and reveals the complex web of decisions and circumstances that left a group of amateurs fighting for their lives in the thi
10、n air and sub-zero cold above 26,000 feet a place climbers call The Death Zone. Into Thin Air reveals the hard realities of mountaineering and echoes with the frantic calls of climbers lost high on the mountain and way beyond help.The following extracts are taken from the book Krakauer eventually wr
11、ote about the expedition, entitled Into thin Air.Team On the morning of March 31, two days after arriving in Kathmandu the assembled members of the 1996 Adventure Consultants Everest Expedition crossed the tarmac of Tribhuvan International Airport and climbed aboard a Russian-built Mi-17 helicopter
12、operated by Asian Airlines. A dented relic of the Afghan war, it was as big as a school bus, seated twenty-six passengers, and looked like it had been riveted together in somebodys backyard. The flight engineer latched the door and handed out wads of cotton to stuff in our ears, and the behemoth cho
13、pper lumbered into the air with a head-splitting roar. The floor was piled high with duffels, backpacks, and cardboard boxes. Jammed into jump seats around the perimeter of the aircraft was the human cargo, facing inward, knees wedged against chests. The deafening whine of the turbines made conversa
14、tion out of the question. It wasnt a comfortable ride, but nobody complained.Glancing around the helicopters capacious interior, I tried to fix the names of my team-mates in my memory. In addition to guides Rob Hall and Andy Harris there was Helen Wilton, a thirty-nine-year-old mother of four, who w
15、as returning for her third season as Base Camp Manager. Caroline Mackenzie an accomplished climber and physician in her late twenties was the expedition doctor and, like Helen, would be going no higher than Base Camp. Lou Kasischke, a gentlemanly lawyer Id met at the airport, had climbed six of the
16、Seven Summits as had Yasuko Namba, forty-seven, a taciturn personnel director who worked at the Tokyo branch of Federal Express. Beck Weathers, forty-nine, was a garrulous pathologist from Dallas. Stuart Hutchinson, thirty-four, attired in a Ren and Stimpy T-shirt, was a cerebral, somewhat wonkish Canadian cardiologist on leave from a research fellowship. John Taske, at fifty-six the oldest member of our group,
