Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews April 5, 2023 March 29, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Krakauer begins by talking about how Everest summons dreamers. Many of the people on his and other expeditions have even less climbing experience than he does. He harkens back to a 1947 expedition involving a Canadian named Earl Denman, who had very little mountain climbing experience. Denman didn't even have permission to enter Tibet, yet he was able to convince two Sherpas to accompany him. Denman made it across Tibet, and up the way to 22,000 feet before encountering a storm that forced him to tur n back.
Thirteen years before Denman, a similarly unqualified man named Maurice Wilson attempted the climb. His motivations were different than that of most climbers, however. Wilson wanted to climb in order to achieve publicity to spread his belief that fast ing and having faith in God could solve the problems of the world. It took him months to actually get to the base of the mountain, because he didn't have permission to fly over Nepal. When he finally began to climb, he encountered problems on the glaciers , repeatedly getting lost. He reached 21,000 feet and after a series of small ascents and descents, finally made an attempt at the summit. One year later, another climber found his body.
Krakauer talks about the criticism surrounding the increasing number of unqualified climbers attempting to climb Everest, but he is quick to point out that just because someone pays a large amount of money to climb the mountain doesn't necessarily mean th at he or she is unqualified.
While waiting for his teammates at Camp One, Krakauer sees Klev Schoening and Pete Schoening. The latter is a Himalayan climbing legend. Schoening was famous for making several successful climbs, but was also well known because of his rescue durin g an unsuccessful attempt. While trying to lower a climber stricken with altitude sickness, Schoening was holding a rope attached to the sick man and four other climbers. One of the climbers slipped, pulling all of them off. Schoening reacted instinctivel y and was able to hold all five men and prevent them from falling, thus patenting the now popular roping technique called The Belay. Schoening, an example that not all clients are unfit to be on the mountain, is a member of Scott Fischer's team. Krakauer acknowledges that his team is not as strong as Fischer's, but is stronger than some of the other teams he has seen on the mountain, including members of a Taiwanese expedition he sees descending awkwardly and dangerously.
Krakauer launches into a description of the reputation of Taiwanese climbing expeditions. They are notorious for being untrained and careless, and for getting in trouble on the mountains. He tells a story about a Taiwanese expedition getting into serious trouble on Alaska's Mount McKinley. The same leader of that expedition led a climb up Everest in 1996.
The South African team is also notoriously troublesome. The whole country stood behind an expedition that was supposed to represent the end of apartheid, climbed by both white and black men and one woman. The expedition got held up when it was revealed th at the lead guide, Ian Woodall, had broken a number of promises about who was actually going to go on the expedition, and had also deceived people into thinking that he was from South Africa when he was actually British. On Krakauer's second day at Ba se Camp he learned that some of the climbers that were to be in the South African expedition had resigned before arriving at the mountain because Woodall was a "jerk," and they didn't want to trust him with their lives.
Please wait while we process your payment