Into Thin Air Characters

Some people just do it all, you know? In Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer pulls double-duty: On one hand, he acts as our narrator and details the events of a fateful day with journalistic clarity; on t...

Rob Hall is the most accomplished guide on Everest in 1996 by a long shot. Given this immense experience, it's shocking—and heartbreaking—that he walks headlong into such a devastating disaster...

Rob Hall might be the most respected mountain guide on Everest in 1996, but young Scott Fischer is out to make his mark in a major way. Bold, brash, and absolutely fearless, Fischer leads his team...

Doug Hansen's story is perhaps the most devastating in all of Into Thin Air. It's like if Rudy ended with its titular character warming the bench or Remember the Titans ended with everyone actually...

Lopsang Jangbu is the LeBron James of the climbing world. Dude's a savant: "although he'd only been climbing for three years […] he'd […] established a reputation as a high-altitude mountaineer...

Anatoli Boukreev might be the most accomplished climber on Everest during the 1996 climbing season. Unfortunately, his hard-nosed nature leads him make some questionable decisions in the hours lead...

Andy Harris's death hits Jon Krakauer the hardest. In part, this is simply because the two men bond a great deal in the weeks leading up to their summit attempt. But there's something else going on...

Jon Krakauer's perspective on Beck Weathers shifts dramatically over the course of Into Thin Air. Though he sees Weathers at first as the physical embodiment of Rush Limbaugh's politics, he eventua...

Although we don't know much about Yasuko Namba as a person, the brief glimpses we do get reveal a focused, determined, and courageous woman.Here's what we do know. Before her attempt on Everest, Ya...

It'd be really easy for us to sit here and talk a bunch of trash about Sandy Pittman. And while we can totally appreciate a good trash-talking sesh, we think Pittman deserves more than a few lazy s...

Although we don't spend much time with Neal Beidleman over the course of Into Thin Air, the dude pulls through when it counts—in a major way.The least-experienced guide on his team, Beidleman is...