Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer On May 10, 1996, nine people died on Mount Everest. Jon Krakauer, a writer for Outside magazine, was there to witness the events and soon after wrote the book, Into Thin Air, chronicling the disaster. Jon Krakauer is not only the writer and narrator of Into Thin Air but also one of the main characters. Outside Magazine originally planned to send Krakauer to Everest so he could write a story for the magazine. The climb was fully funded by the magazine with one of Everest's leading guide teams led by Rob Hall, an elite climber. Krakauer divides people in the mountains into two main categories, tourists and elites. The elite are made up of guides and Sherpas such as Hall, Harris and Ang Dorje, with many years of mountaineering experience and previous ascents of Everest. Tourist climbers are those led by the elite, who usually pay large sums of money to get to the top safely. Although Krakauer does not fall into any of these groups, he can undoubtedly be placed in the tourist category. His lack of recent climbs, high altitude experience, leadership skills and connection to the elite mountaineering community are ample evidence to call him a tourist mountaineer. Krakauer is a veteran climber with many climbs under his belt. Some of his very risky solo adventures include ice climbing in Alaska, Canada and Colorado. Krakauer was extremely devoted to climbing. He tells us that: “When I was in my early twenties, climbing had become the focus of my existence. . .” (23). Suddenly, years after his life had settled down, he had gotten married, bought a house and had a steady job, Krakauer suddenly had the opportunity to rekindle his dream from over thirty years ago... halfway of paper... ... his separation and distancing from the modern and elite climbing scene. When Jon Krakauer describes Everest climbers he tends to infer whether each climber is a tourist or an elite climber. In the same way we interpret his writings by separating tourist and elite characters, it is easy to conclude that Krakauer is a tourist climbing Everest. In the first two chapters there is a lot of evidence that places Krakauer with the other tourist. Krakauer shows his lack of recent and high altitude climbing experience, leadership skills and connection to the group of modern elite climbers. Even though Krakauer doesn't come out and blatantly tell us that he's a climbing tourist, the information he provides about his life and how he ended up where he is overwhelmingly proves that he's just another climbing tourist trying to get to the top to the mountain. world, Mount Everest.