Into Thin Air

1 use

Relying on bottled oxygen as an aid to ascent is a practice that's sparked acrimonious debate ever since the British first took experimental oxygen rigs to Everest in 1921.

1 use

Over the weeks that followed he languished in the hospital, staring blankly at the ceiling, arms curled tightly at his sides, muscles atrophying, his weight dropping below eighty pounds.

1 use

Glancing around the helicopter's capacious interior, I tried to fix the names of my teammates in my memory.

1 use

How can it be explained, not only to loved ones left behind, but to a censorious public?

2 uses

Unable to grasp the benefits of the inflatable chamber and terrified of it, Ngawang asked that a Buddhist lama be summoned, and before consenting to being zipped into its claustrophobic interior, he requested that prayer books be placed in the bag with him.

1 use

...was loudly derided by knowledgeable mountaineers...

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Now I dream of ... the smell of soil crumbling between my fingers, and the brilliant green of plants that I diligently nurture.

1 use

Her eminent companions on the 1994 attempt said nothing disparaging about Pittman, at least not in public.

1 use

"I will tolerate no dissension up there."

1 use

The crowds of novices being escorted to the top for a fee, huffed Sir Edmund, were engendering disrespect for the mountain.

1 use

In the Icefall, though, expediency dictated that each of us climb independently, without being physically connected to one another in any way.

1 use

If the name of Hall's business, Adventure Consultants, mirrored his methodical, fastidious approach to climbing, style, Mountain Madness was an even more accurate reflection of Scott's personal style.

1 use

People were drawn to Fischer's energy and generosity, his absence of guile, his almost childlike enthusiasm.

2 uses

In pondering how this disaster could have occurred, it is imperative to remember that lucid thought is all but impossible at 29,000 feet.

3 uses

Experienced guides would later question his decision to descend so far ahead of his clients—extremely unorthodox behavior for a guide.

2 uses

The consequences of a poorly tied knot, a stumble, a dislodged rock, or some other careless deed are as likely to be felt by the perpetrator's colleagues as the perpetrator.

1 use

And now you have repudiated the character of Lopsang with your "tattle tale" accounts of him.

2 uses

4 uses

I say "probably" because of what transpired four days after Norton's summit assault.

2 uses

Above 26,000 feet, moreover, the line between appropriate zeal and reckless summit fever becomes grievously thin.