Climbing Every Mountain

I just started reading Into Thin Air this evening. I have to write a response for class.

I like Krakauer's writing. Beginning with the actual acent of the summit in the first chapter, then backtracking to the beginning of the entire ordeal in the 2nd chapter is very effective. It created suspense; I am consistently hooked into reading through even the journalistic background he gives of each climber on the mountain with him. However, his writing isn't all reporting, there are many good stylistic phrases that stick out and appeal to the senses:

Retiring to my tent at night, I was serenaded by a madrigal of creaks andpercussive cracks, a reminder that I was lying on a moving river of ice. p 64.

Even though his inflexible new boots had chewed his feet into hamburger, p 140.

I also enjoyed how unromantic Krakauer was about the entire climb. Though I wonder if it is more a result of his own harrowing memories of the tragic outcome of the team's ascent, he is quite honest about the dangers of climbing Everest, his and his team's shortcomings, the slight insanity that accompanies any desire to climb Everest, and even his own fear:

Problem was, my inner voice resembled Chicken Little: it was screaming that I was about to die, but it did that almost every time I laced up my climbing boots. I therefore did my damnednest to ignore my histrionic imagination and grimly followed Rob into the eerie blue labyrinth. p81.

This story is unlike any we have read so far in this class not only because of the dangerous nature of the traveling Krakauer and his team are doing but also because of the outcome we know this journey has. I find myself laughing at some of Krakauer's teammates like Sandy Pittman and her People magazine subscription delivered to her at Base Camp, but it is subdued from a sense of dread that lingers throughout the book. Not only have people died attempting what Krakauer's team is doing, but we already know that some of them do die before the end of the book.

There is another moment I will comment on from the end of our reading for today. On page 143, Krakauer reaches Camp 3 where some of their team's Sherpas were still preparing camp by hewing out another platform to pitch the 4th tent. Krakauer decides to help but soon realizes that, "at 24,000 feet, I could manage only seven or eight blows of my ice ax before having t0 pause for more than a minute to catch my break. My contribution to the effort was negligible, needless to say." This struck me particularly, because it is exactly how I felt a week ago in Perú while we were trying to dig ditches and pits for the foundation of the medical clinic. Basically, there were only two jobs for us, shoveling dirt, often from low levels to high, and wheelbarrowing dirt to and from the site. Wanting very much to contribute, I tried doing both of these jobs, both of which are hard enough on anyone who doesn't normally do manual labor. My back however, would not let me lift more than one shovelfull after the first day withough excruciating pain from my injury last year. And most of the guys (and Eleanor) could haul twice as much dirt in a wheelbarrow as I could. I got so frustrated on Day 3 with my weakness. I went up to the secluded 3rd floor of the church and cried out my frustration and exhaustion. Benjie happened to be coming up there to work on his sermon for later that evening and talked with me a little about why I was upset. He helped me realize that though I might not be as effective in the mornings as we worked outside, I was helping more than I probably realized as I conversed with the neighborhood kids and helped with VBS in the afternoons. Working with kids comes so easily and naturally for me; I don't realize that it might be just as hard for some people to do that sort of ministry, and I don't give those sorts of jobs that much credit because to me they are so enjoyable. In the end, I only hope that God was glorified not only in my play with the kids at VBS, but also in the revelation of my weakness before Him.

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 2 Corinthians 12:9