1996년, 에베레스트에 도전한 네 팀의 등반대에서 열두 명의 산악인들이 한꺼번에 조난당해 목숨을 잃었다. <Into Thin Air>는 당시 등반대의 일원으로 참여했던 저널리스트 존 크라카우어가 사건의 전말에 관해 쓴 논픽션이다. 

「아웃사이더」지의 기자였던 지은이는 날로 상업화되어 가는 에베레스트 등정을 취재하러 1996년 봄 어드벤처 컨설턴츠라는 등반대에 합류한다. 등반대원은 일부 전문산악인과 비싼 참가비를 지불할 수 있는 일반인들로 구성되었다. 산에 대한 순수한 열정이나 자신의 극한의 의지를 시험하고자 하는 사람도 있었지만, 유명세를 위한 수단이나 고급 취미 정도로 산에 오르고자 한 이들도 있었던 것.

그러나 산은 각기 다른 사람의 사정을 헤아리지 않았다. 해발 팔천 미터의 '희박한 공기 속에서' 대원들의 정신과 의지는 바닥을 드러냈다. 그들은 극한의 한계로 내몰렸고, 간발의 차이로 생사가 갈렸다. 일행 중 선두에서 하산한 덕택에 살아남은 지은이는, 직접 보고 겪은 순간에 대한 회상과 다른 생존자들과의 인터뷰 그때 그곳에 어떤 비극적인 일이 벌어졌는지를 기록했다.

A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster.
By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself.
This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guideAnatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I.
In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation afterchallenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."