Each chapter begins with where they are on the mountain, and a short story written by a past climber. At 16,200 feet, the description of Everest is formidable. Thomas Hornbein wrote: "All that one could see and feel and hear--of Icefall, moraine, avalanche, cold--was of a world not intended for human habitation. No water flowed, nothing grew--only destruction and decay...This would be home for the next several months until the mountain was climbed." This really shows how brave the climbers would be to try and climb to a place like that. Maybe it shows how foolish they were to try and think that they could.
What surprised me was the description of how commercialized Mt. Everest has become. When they got to the first base camp, there were 400 tents! There were expeditions from all over the world. Each expedition had a guide who was in charge of bringing the group to the top. Each group also had Sherpas, people native to the area who helped the groups get up the mountain. It seems like all a person had to do was come up with the $70,000 and they could be led right up the mountain.
It reminded me of a mountain we saw in Switzerland. If you paid $400.00 you could ride the train right up to the top. It didn't take any skill to get to the top. Even on Everest, one of the guides said, "It's attitude, not experience that counts." However, Rob Hall, another guide said, "I think it's pretty unlikely that we'll get through this season without something bad happening up high" (104).
We know something bad is going to happen, but we don't know what. We know that the attitudes seem carefree at this point. The "expert" guides may think that the inexperienced climbers will get hurt; but we know that it's the experts who will die.
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