1996年珠峰探险的背景(ppt)
PRE-COURSE READING
EXTRACTS FROM INTO THIN AIR – JON KRAKAUER (1997)
Background to the 1996 Everest Expedition
In the early 1990’s Rob Hall made a considerable name for himself in the mountaineering fraternity by summitting the highest mountains on each of the seven continents in only seven months.
In an attempt to capitalise on this and generate long term prospects in professional climbing, he and a partner established a company called Adventure Consultants. This company would specialise in high altitude guiding – taking paying clients up and back down the ‘seven-summits’. Convinced that there would be enough potential clients with ‘ample cash,’ but insufficient experience, Adventure Consultants was born.
About the same time, a nu`mber of other climbers had similar ideas. Several companies specialising in high altitude guiding were launched. Amongst these was Mountain Madness, headed by Scott Fischer. In 1994 Fischer ascended Everest without supplemental oxygen, and a couple of years later he led a high profile ascent of Kilimanjaro that netted half a million dollars for the charity CARE.
Most of the companies in the high-altitude guiding market were only barely making a profit. In 1995 Fischer took home only about $12,000. Future profitability depended on the ability to attract high profile clients, who would spend large amounts to join an expedition, and then to get them safely up and down the mountain.
With both Hall and Fischer mounting expeditions to Everest in the spring of 1996, the scene was set for some friendly competition between the two. Jon Krakauer, a journalist and experienced mountain climber approached both organisations to discuss joining their teams as a client. In return for a discount, he would write a number of high profile articles in ‘Outside Magazine’ – a publication widely read by climbing enthusiasts in North America. He eventually decided to climb with Rob Hall and Adventure Consultants.
On May 9th 1996, five expeditions launched an assault on the summit of Mount Everest. The conditions seemed perfect. Twenty-four hours later one climber had died and 23 other men and women were caught in a desperate struggle for their lives as they battled against a ferocious storm that threatened to tear them from the mountain. In all eight climbers died that day in the worst tragedy Everest has ever seen.
Jon Krakauer, an accomplished climber, joined a commercial expenditure run by guides for paying clients, many of whom had little or no climbing experience. In Into Thin Air he gives a thorough and chilling account of the ill-fated climb and reveals the complex web of decisions and circumstances that left a group of amateurs fighting for their lives in the thin air and sub-zero cold above 26,000 feet – a place climbers call ‘The Death Zone’. Into Thin Air reveals the hard realities of mountaineering and echoes with the frantic calls of climbers lost high on the mountain and way beyond help.
The following extracts are taken from the book Krakauer eventually wrote about the expedition, entitled Into thin Air.

1996年珠峰探险的背景(ppt)