Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What technique is used in the first chapter to confirm that tragedy befell the climbers?

A) Foreshadowing

B) Irony

C) Metaphor

D) Symbolism

2. Which of the following is the strongest example of the pitfalls of unchecked ambition?

A) Sandy Pittman being tethered to the Sherpa guide

B) Beck Weathers’s loss of his arm to frostbite

C) The corpses that litter the slopes of the mountain

D) Jon Krakauer’s frozen larynx

3. What unexpected realization does Krakauer come to as he begins the process of climbing the mountain?

A) Sherpa guides who require oxygen to summit Everest should be avoided.

B) Regardless of wealth, anyone who reaches the summit deserves respect.

C) Under better weather conditions, Everest is not particularly hard to summit.

D) Mount Everest has a boundless beauty that is unmatched on Earth.

4. Who is Caroline Mackenzie?

A) Head cook

B) Base camp manager

C) A member of the South African expedition

D) Expedition doctor

5. What does the Buddhist scholar, Rinpoche, show to Jon?

A) Photos of his recent trip to America

B) A meditation technique to assist with altitude sickness

C) The monastery on the side of the mountain

D) A news article about the dangers of Everest

6. What do some of the climbers pick up in Lobuje?

A) Dysentery

B) More climbers

C) Supplies

D) Head lice

7. How does Krakauer employ juxtaposition to heighten the tension in Into Thin Air?

A) By describing the similar beauty of both the Lhotse Face and the peak of Everest

B) By contrasting the death of an experienced climber with his team members’ nonchalance

C) By letting the reader understand that the expedition will end in tragedy from the onset

D) By reporting on the events of the expedition, even as his actions shape its conclusion

8. Sandy Pittman’s gear—laptops, gourmet food, chocolate Easter eggs, an expresso machine, and fashion magazines—best amplify which of the following themes?

A) Human Ambition

B) The Commercialization of Everest

C) The Immense Power of Nature and the Frailty of Man

D) The Corrupting Influence of Journalism

9. How does Krakauer’s opinion of Beck Weathers change over the course of the expedition?

A) He initially finds Weathers to be arrogant but grows to admire him.

B) He initially finds Weathers to be arrogant but determines he is ignorant.

C) He initially finds Weathers likable but finds him increasingly annoying.

D) He initially finds Weathers to be ignorant but determines he is very intelligent.

10. Why is Krakauer’s inclusion in Hall’s expedition ironic?

A) Krakauer is reporting on the unpredictability of nature and its impact on climbing Everest, only to be involved in one of the worst disasters on Everest.

B) Krakauer is reporting on the dangers of extreme sports while engaging in an extreme sport.

C) Krakauer is reporting on the commercialization of Everest in exchange for providing free advertising for Hall in Outside magazine.

D) Krakauer is reporting on the psychology behind those who engage in thrill-seeking activities, and he nearly suffers brain damage from altitude sickness.

11. Why is Krakauer critical of the Russian guide, Boukreev?

A) Boukreev refused to leave Camp Four, even after his clients were summiting.

B) Krakauer thinks Boukreev coddles his clients too much, making them dependent on him.

C) Boukreev left the summit before many of his clients made it to the top.

D) Krakauer believes Boukreev has been siphoning more oxygen than he was allotted.

12. Rob Hall is characterized as careful and thorough throughout the novel. Which of the following actions most contradicts this characterization?

A) Hall does not adhere to his own strict turnaround time on summit day.

B) Hall refuses to abandon Doug Hansen, even though Doug is dead.

C) Hall abandons his clients after summitting himself.

D) Hall dismisses the fact that the sherpas did not go ahead of the group and secure ropes.

13. Which teams provide support for the members of Hall’s and Fischer’s expeditions?

A) South Africa and Alpine Ascents

B) North India and IMAX

C) Mountain Madness and Alpine Ascents

D) IMAX and Alpine Ascents

14. Which best describes the author’s retelling of a tragedy that his actions helped shape? 

A) He continually blames The Commercialization of Everest for the loss of life.

B) He lays bare his poor decisions and regrets with apparent honesty.

C) He suggests that all those who venture on Everest’s slopes share his guilt.

D) He claims that in such a dangerous environment, all morality becomes relative.

15. What does Krakauer focus on after the publication of his article in Outside magazine?

A) Rebuilding the broken relationship between himself and his wife

B) The negative correspondence he receives from writing the article

C) Honoring the death of his fellow climbers by building a memorial

D) Researching the next opportunity to climb a mountain

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. According to Krakauer, why is the commercialization of Everest unlikely to wane, despite its obvious dangers?

2. What complex attitudes does Krakauer hold toward Mount Everest after this ordeal?