Into Thin Air: Chapters 10–14

by Jon Krakauer
In this memoir, Jon Krakauer recounts a disastrous expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest that left five people dead and many others — including the author — questioning their own culpability.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–5, Chapters 6–9, Chapters 10–14, Chapter 15–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. camaraderie
    the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability
    Then I started to climb, and the sport provided most of what had been missing for me in civvy street — the challenge, the camaraderie, the sense of mission.
  2. negligible
    so small as to be meaningless; insignificant
    At 24,000 feet, I could manage only seven or eight blows of my ice ax before having to pause for more than a minute to catch my breath. My contribution to the effort was negligible, needless to say, and it took nearly an hour to complete the job.
  3. subcutaneous
    located or applied under the skin
    I’d also burned up virtually all my subcutaneous fat, making me vastly more sensitive to the cold.
  4. intransigence
    stubborn refusal to compromise or change
    After arriving in Base Camp with the ailing Kruse on the evening of May 6, Fischer made two satellite phone calls to Seattle in which he complained bitterly to his business partner, Karen Dickinson, and to his publicist, Jane Bromet, about Boukreev’s intransigence.
  5. acrimonious
    marked by strong resentment or cynicism
    Relying on bottled oxygen as an aid to ascent is a practice that’s sparked acrimonious debate ever since the British first took experimental oxygen rigs to Everest in 1921.
  6. hypothermia
    subnormal body temperature
    But it soon became apparent that in the so-called Death Zone above 25,000 feet, without supplemental oxygen the body is vastly more vulnerable to HAPE and HACE, hypothermia, frostbite, and a host of other mortal perils.
  7. eschew
    avoid and stay away from deliberately
    Henceforth, if one aspired to be considered a member of the Himalayan elite, eschewing bottled oxygen was mandatory.
  8. asphyxiate
    deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
    As I fought to catch my breath after moving past three climbers, the mask actually gave the illusion of asphyxiating me, so I tore it from my face—only to discover breathing was even harder without it.
  9. obviate
    do away with
    A gibbous moon rose above the shoulder of 27,824-foot Makalu, washing the slope beneath my boots in ghostly light, obviating the need for a headlamp.
  10. sporadically
    in an irregular or unpredictable manner
    Thus on the morning of our summit bid, the only ropes strung along the precipitous serrations of the upper Southeast Ridge were a few ancient, tattered remnants from past expeditions that emerged sporadically from the ice.
  11. unequivocal
    admitting of no doubt or misunderstanding
    Around 11:40, Beidleman eventually asked, “Hey, Ang Dorje, are you going to fix the ropes, or what?” Ang Dorje’s reply was a quick, unequivocal “No” — perhaps because none of Fischer’s Sherpas were there to share the work.
  12. ponderous
    labored and dull
    Climbing above the South Summit with my regulator delivering just under two liters of oxygen per minute, I had to stop and draw three or four lungfuls of air after each ponderous step.
  13. hypoxia
    oxygen deficiency
    In hindsight, Andy was acting irrationally and had plainly slipped well beyond routine hypoxia, but I was so mentally impeded myself that it simply didn’t register.
  14. promontory
    a natural elevation
    About 4:45 P.M., when I reached the Balcony — the promontory at 27,600 feet on the Southeast Ridge where I’d sat watching the sunrise with Ang Dorje — I was shocked to encounter Beck Weathers, standing alone in the snow, shivering violently.
  15. inadvertently
    without knowledge or intention
    But by the time he reached the Balcony and the sun came up, he realized his vision was worse than ever. In addition, he’d inadvertently rubbed some ice crystals into his eyes, lacerating both corneas.
Created on Fri Aug 12 20:21:36 EDT 2016 (updated Wed Jul 02 15:55:56 EDT 2025)

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