Jon Krakauer, a journalist in his early forties, is approached by Outside magazine with a proposition: to hike to Everest Base Camp and write an article on the commercialization of the area. Krakauer nurses a boyhood dream of summiting Everest. He counter-proposes that he should join an expedition summiting the peak and write the article from this perspective. Outside magazine agrees and Jon Krakauer joins Rob Hall’s 1996 Everest expedition.

An accomplished and experienced mountaineer, Krakauer is shocked by the vastly mixed abilities in Rob Hall’s expedition. His concern turns out to be well-founded; the slow pace of a number of climbers is a causal factor in the loss of life on May 10. Krakauer is traumatized by the tragedy, and writes Into Thin Air as an act of catharsis.

Krakauer is the author of a number of renowned nonfiction books, including Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven. His extensive mountaineering experience informs his examination of the 1996 Everest tragedy.

Rob Hall is an experienced mountaineer from New Zealand. He has a wife, Jan Arnold, who is seven months pregnant with their first child at the time of the Everest disaster.