1. Journal #4
Krakauer specifies early on how important it is to be able to trust one's teammates: "In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern. One climber's actions can affect the welfare of the entire team" (47). On this expedition, Krakauer climbs primarily with strangers and he is uncomfortable putting his life in the hands of people whose presence on the mountain is not necessarily a tribute to their climbing skills.
What character traits would you need to lead an Everest expedition?

6. Chapter 7- Camp One Everest summons dreamers. Earl Denman
Very little mountaineering experience
In 1947, convinced two Sherpas to accompany him on Everest.
Denman made it across Tibet, and up the way to 22,000 feet before encountering a storm that forced him to turn back.
Maurice Wilson
Wanted to climb in order to achieve publicity to spread his belief that fasting and having faith in God could solve the problems of the world.
Repeatedly got lost.
He reached 21,000 feet and made an attempt at the summit.
One year later, another climber found his body.
There is an increasing number of unqualified climbers attempting to climb Everest, but just because someone pays a large amount of money to climb the mountain doesn't necessarily mean that he or she is unqualified.

7. Pete Schoening is a climbing legend.
While waiting for his teammates at Camp One, Krakauer sees Klev Schoening and Pete Schoening.
Pete Schoening is a climbing legend.
A member of Scott Fischer's team.
69 at the time of this climb
Well known because of the rescue
he performed on K2.
While trying to lower a climber stricken with altitude sickness, Pete was holding a rope attached to the sick man and four other climbers.
One of the climbers slipped, pulling all of them off, but Pete was able to hold all five men and prevent them from falling.

8. Makalu Gau, the leader of that expedition, is also leading this climb.
Krakauer says 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.
“If someone like Pete Schoening was the equivalent of a major-league baseball star, my fellow clients and I were like a ragtag collection of pretty decent small-town softball players who’d bribed their way into the World Series.”
For example, the Taiwanese team is 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.
Makalu Gau, the leader of that expedition, is also leading this climb.

9. The South African team was also troublesome.
The expedition was supposed to represent the end of apartheid, climbed by both white and black men and women.
Some of the climbers resigned before heading to the mountain because the lead guide, Ian Woodall, was a total jerk and they didn't want to trust him with their lives.
Lied about who would be making the climb on the climbing permit.
Claimed was from South Africa when he was actually British.
Kicked the journalist assigned to cover the story off his team.

10. Chapter 7 ends with Rob Hall saying…
“With so many incompetent people on the mountain, I think it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll get through this season without something bad happening up high.”

13. Chapter 8- Camp One 19,500 ft
The group begins its second acclimatization climb from Base Camp to Camp One.
Hall wants them to spend two nights at Camp One, then spend three nights at Camp Two before heading back down to Base Camp.
Krakauer feels that he is getting used to the high altitude.
Krakauer makes it to Camp One ahead of most of the climbers, and tries to help Sherpa Ang Dorje set up camp, but he finds physical labor at the high altitude nearly impossible.

14. In the morning they leave for Camp Two, situated almost four miles above them. Just before Camp Two, Krakauer sees a dead body. It is probably the body of a Sherpa that died a number of years before.
The next two days at Camp Two are extremely difficult due to the altitude.
Krakauer cannot do much except "lay in my tent with my head in my hands, trying to exert myself as little as possible" (138).
He climbs above Camp Two to help accelerate the acclimatization, and stumbles upon another dead body.

15. One of Fischer's Sherpas, Ngawang Topche, had been feeling weak and strange for a couple days.
Sherpas are not supposed to suffer altitude sickness, so acknowledging altitude-related problems often ends a Sherpa's career. Instead of going back to Base Camp as Fischer suggests, Ngawang continues up to Camp Two.
At Camp Two, Ngawang is having trouble walking, is delirious and is coughing up blood. These are symptoms of HAPE, or High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. The only cure is to descend as quickly as possible.
None of Fischer's guides are with Ngawang because Fischer allows guides and clients to go up and down at their will during the acclimatization process.
They have to carry him down to Base Camp, and he improves temporarily, then begins to deteriorate.
Unwilling to admit that he actually has HAPE, Ngawang defies the camp doctor's orders and removes his oxygen mask. He continues to get worse.
They are able to get Ngawang to Pheriche, and then flown to Katmandu, but he eventually dies in the hospital.

16. Websites are broadcasted from Everest by a number of teams, including a group filming an IMAX movie.
An Internet correspondent with Fischer's team, Sandy Pittman, dispatches information for NBC Interactive Media.
Pittman had attempted to climb the mountain three times in the past, and this time is accompanied by much publicity and fanfare.
Sandy wanted to be the first woman to climb all Seven Summits, Everest being her last, but another woman finished all seven first.