Recently finished Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." Found it enthralling. Do not understand subsequent criticism of Krakauer.

My thoughts pretty much echo your's. Allowing a supposed guide to go without bottled oxygen makes no sense. The guy should have done that on his own time and dime. Krakauer called it the way he saw it, and some people can't handle the truth.

He is an egomaniac. Only his way is the right way. Anyone who disagrees with him about that must be attack, and attacked, and attacked.

www.markhorrell.com/blog/2011/the-krakauer-syndrome

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/07/jon-krakauer-heckler-missoula-forum-rape

Being a successful author requires a certain amount of ego. The author needs to believe that what he is writing is worthwhile and that people will want to buy it.

Having said that, the criticism against him goes overboard. When it comes to Into Thin Air you certainly can't call him a journalist reporting from thousands of miles away, as the linked article insinuates. He was actually there. The great irony of that article to me is that it's a prime example of a person who wasn't there at all giving commentary. It's absurd for a troll to come on here to use it to badmouth Krakauer who was actually there and reported on it.

If we use some transitive properties between the two articles we can at least be annoyed with Krakauer that he wasn't present in Missoula for what all happened there, but did try to report on it.

These attacks on Krakauer seem misguided, though. Are there useful things to be gotten out of his books? I think so. How about respecting the risks of something as outlandish as climbing the highest peaks in the world. How about doing more to protect people from assaults on campuses. Those goals themselves are not egomaniacal.

He's a decent writer - I've met him twice (friends of friends of friends sort of thing) and he didn't strike me as a guy with an overinflated ego (for a writer) like Jonathan Franzen, etc. Into Thin Air was good and Into The Wild was unintentionally funny to me and I was happy the kid died because he was a jerk.

Little known fact, Into the Wild inspired the whole Reality TV decay of society as we know it.

I couldn’t stop laughing when I watched the movie. Favorite line- the shnozberries taste like shnozberries!

In my view he reached the summit and lived. He had the mountaineering background and belonged there, unlike many that "climb" Everest these days. He's probably a bit of a know it all, but doesn't deserve harsh criticism for telling his perspective on the story.

He's crossed over to general interest topics the last few years (Tillman, Missoula, Mormon murders), but, wow, was his adventure writing absolutely fantastic. Nothing to do with the OP's question, which people are addressing pretty well, but read his collection of stories from "Outside" at some point, "Eiger Dreams." It's terrific.

FWIW, I used to be a sports writer. In hindsight, I wish I would have gotten more active earlier in life and tried to go the Krakauer route. I'd much rather read "Outside's" kind of stories these days than another feature on the Super Bowl. (Don't get me wrong. I love the NFL and all sports. But I'd rather watch them.)

A view from Broad Peak wrote:

My thoughts pretty much echo your's. Allowing a supposed guide to go without bottled oxygen makes no sense. The guy should have done that on his own time and dime. Krakauer called it the way he saw it, and some people can't handle the truth.

a "supposed guide"?

That's rich.

My own perspective is simply that it's all but impossible to sit in judgement from the sidelines on these kinds of things. Decisions in the field are almost completely contextual. For some reason the human mind wants to wrap what is an entirely subjective world in to a completely objective box, likely because we like to think that way .. but it's rarely a good idea to do so; and in these situations, almost wholly inappropriate to try.

Would really suggest you read Boukarev's "The Climb" and Beck Wethers' "Left For Dead" if you like ITA. Boukarev died later in an avalanche, and Beck's wife still seems to dislike him immensely.

Awesome book. Read it three times at least. If you couldn’t put that down then immediately start “Touching the Void”. Oh man. Also adventure mountain climbing book about things gone wrong in a bad way. You will think of this book every day for a year. You might need therapy after.

slowerthanu wrote:

In my view he reached the summit and lived. He had the mountaineering background and belonged there, unlike many that "climb" Everest these days. He's probably a bit of a know it all, but doesn't deserve harsh criticism for telling his perspective on the story.

Well, he is hardly critical of those writes about. How is it that he does not deserve the same?

Boukreev helped save that expedition while Krakauer was asleep. If Boukreev wasn't a gd animal that day then it would have been a lot worse, and pretty much everyone else corroborated against Krakauer's story of how it went down.

Read Boukreev's book "The Climb". It's his account of the same expedition. It's a great read that gives another perspective on Krakauer's version.

moanswers wrote:

Read Boukreev's book "The Climb". It's his account of the same expedition. It's a great read that gives another perspective on Krakauer's version.

Its not just him, its all mountain limbers who kill other people or ruin the lives of others (sherpas, rescuers, their own faamily) so they can pursue their f'n hobby.

Exactly. Here is a review by someone who read both books about the "event" and how Krakauer decided to present his "version." There are other reviewers in the link below who changed their minds about Krakauer after reading Boukreev's actual first-person account. Krakauer wrote about what he thought happened, which is not to be confused with what actually happened.

EgoKrakauer wrote:

He is an egomaniac. Only his way is the right way. Anyone who disagrees with him about that must be attack, and attacked, and attacked.

But all he is to me and you is an author, and a damn good one at that. What difference does it make if he's an egomaniac? Or an alcoholic? Or a pervert? Or a space alien?

Why do modern Americans have to be able to admire the entertainer to be able to enjoy the entertainment?

I would be very reluctant second guessing experienced climbers in the most extreme conditions imaginable. Beyond imagination, actually.

I wonder if people like you even read the book or if you're just hopping on some bandwagon. Krakauer states multiple times in the book that Boukreev was heroic and incredible and gave him a great deal of praise. The only "criticism" he gave Boukreev in the whole book was that he thought guides should be using supplemental oxygen so that they are at their best in case any of their clients need help. I don't see that as controversial. Krakauer also states that Boukreev was a very skilled and capable climber. And about the saving, again, Boukreev was a very experienced GUIDE who had summitted Everest without oxygen, while Krakauer was a client with no prior high altitude experience at all who was so apoxic he couldn't properly recognize people when looking them dead in the face. Things probably could have been done differently, better decisions could have been made, but nobody thinks clearly at that altitude. Some people can't even handle it at all and have to be evacuated. I think it is idiotic to pass judgement on someone when not only were you not there, but you don't have any experience with situations anything like that. It wasn't just Krakauer who left Beck Weathers for dead either. Multiple peopled judged him to be beyond saving.

I'm not even trying to defend Krakauer. I just think it's absurd that people think they would have done things so much better if it was them (which it was not, nor would they ever even have the balls to attempt something like that).

Karl Hungus wrote:

He's a decent writer - I've met him twice (friends of friends of friends sort of thing) and he didn't strike me as a guy with an overinflated ego (for a writer) like Jonathan Franzen, etc. Into Thin Air was good and Into The Wild was unintentionally funny to me and I was happy the kid died because he was a jerk.

Thought the film Into The Wild was better than the book. There were major gaps in the book as to where the kid was for long stretches of time.

Also, the film did a better job of portraying Kristin Stewart in skimpy underwear.