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

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. Guides (Chapter 1)

2. Sir George Everest (Chapter 2)

3. Edmund Hillary (Chapter 2)

4. Harris’ partner (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. Instead of decreasing the flow, he increases it. (Chapter 1)

2. Hillary summits Everest on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. (Chapter 2)

3. Like Jon, Doug is not particularly wealthy. The other climbers are much wealthier compared to them. (Chapter 4)

4. It is extremely unhygienic. (Chapter 5)

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. The Khumbu Icefall (Chapter 6)

2. Altitude sickness (Chapter 7)

3. Frostbite and a frozen larynx (Chapter 9)

4. Extramarital sex between two climbers (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. The first Black person to summit is part of their team. (Chapter 6)

2. Like these two previous climbers, many of the climbers in Krakauer’s group are inexperienced. (Chapter 7)

3. Marion and Graem financially support Ang Dorje so that he can go back to school. (Chapter 8)

4. He has lost muscle and fat. (Chapter 10)

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. Melting ice (Chapter 11)

2. 11:30 p.m. (Chapter 12)

3. Install fixed lines (Chapter 13)

4. He insists that they are empty. (Chapter 14)

Short Answer

1. He abandons his attempt to summit when he realizes it is getting too late in the day to do so safely. (Chapter 11)

2. Some people consider it “cheating” to do so. (Chapter 11)

3. The person vomiting in the snow is Lopsang, who was ordinarily one of the strongest members of the group. Krakauer is concerned that Lopsang has exhausted himself by hauling a satellite phone up to Camp Four for Sandy Pittman the previous day. (Chapter 12)

4. Yasuko clipped on to an unanchored rope and nearly started climbing, which would have pulled the guide anchoring the rope off the mountain. (Chapter 13)

Chapters 16-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. A radio battery (Chapter 16)

2. 4:00 p.m. (Chapter 17)

3. They don’t stop. (Chapter 18)

4. Beck Weathers (Chapter 19)

5. Smokes marijuana (Chapter 21)

Short Answer

1. He believes Andy was disoriented and fell over the Lhotse Face. (Chapter 16)

2. Despite surviving a night unprotected on the mountain, he eventually succumbs to death. He is found 12 days later by other climbers. (Chapter 17)

3. Despite finding them both alive, Hutchinson decides to take Lhakpa’s advice and leave Beck and Yasuko where they are. Their conditions were so bad, it was very unlikely they would survive, and attempting a rescue would place others at risk. (Chapter 18)

4. Because she is already such a public figure and the expedition resulted in so many deaths, she suffers heavy criticism. (Epilogue)