The Brink of Death

Have you ever wonder what it would feel like to have your arm entrapped by an 800 pound boulder ( I am guessing that it isn’t the greatest feeling)? When Aron Ralston an outdoor fanatic sets out on a hike in the remote Utah canyon-lands at the Blue-John Canyon, far away from any civilazation  the unthinkable happens. An 800 – pound boulder tumbling’s loss and heads to crush Aron’s arm and learns that “If you want to get to Heaven, you have to go through hell”(88).

In the rising action of the novel Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron has endure 72 hours (Three days) of having his arm entrap in the boulder and is near the brink of death. With most of his water and food supplies gone, Aron has only three options left. Trying to wait for rescue (Very unlikely to find him alive), commit suicide, or amputate his arm off.  With temperatures slowly dropping-leaving Aron exposed to wrath hypothermia, which is slowly killing him.  Hardly having any sleep at night, Aron is affect by sleep deprivation and is very slowly losing him mind. Throughout his entrapment, Aron has finally understood that “It’s me. I chose this. I chose all of this-this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. I’ve been moving towards it my whole life.” There is no one to blame for what has happen to him.

Much like the my recent independent novel, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, both Aron and Jon face a constant Human vs. Nature conflict. Jon sets out to climb one of the most challenging mountains of all. Mt. Everest. Many have died trying for this ultimate accomplishment and have gotten lost in the mist of their overconfidence.  As many climbers begin the final ascent to the summit, many forget the unstoppable power of mother- nature. Above the ‘Death Zone’ a blizzard comes out of nowhere and changes the lives of many of the climbers forever.

In Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron sets out alone, without telling any of his friends where he is heading off to.  He is confident that he will make it back in time to Aspen Colorado, his home, just how Jon was sure that he was coming back from Mt. Everest alive. But this time all of Aron’s experience and confidence of not running into any trouble was wrong. “You’ll never find your limits until you’ve gone too far,” (206) however, this time Aron gone way too far from his set limits, and like what Jon did in the novel Into Thin Air, got over- themselves. Aron entrapped both in his mind and body and “longs to see his family again, but he knows that he has entered the protractedly dismal final countdown to his death” (213). Will he ever see life again?

Citations For featured Image:

 

Arrogance: Beliving that Sagarmathaji Can be Tamed

As survivor form the 1996 Everest Disaster, Jon Krakauer struggles to find his life that has been buried underneath the Everest Disaster. From the ongoing thoughts of the disaster, Krakauer simply can only blame himself for what happened that one night. Krakauer can’t even do anything about it, “I cried for my lost companions, I cried because I was grateful to be alive, I cried because I felt terrible for having survived while others had died” (Krakauer 279). Krakauer is stroke  with questions about the incident, attempting to answer them in a number of ways. Hypoxia, or the influence of high altitude on decision-making, perception and memory further distorts everyone’s accounts of what happened there, and makes it even more difficult to figure out how and why.

*Spoiler Alert*

In the resolution of the novel Into Thin Air, Krakauer concludes that  arrogance is to blame for the tragedy that took place on Mt.Everest in 1996.  Scott Fischer (One of the guides in the novel) had told many people that he had”built a yellow brick road to the summit” (86). Many guides have even thought that any average person could summit this mountain. Rob Hall (Another Mt. Everest guide in the novel) “bragged on more than one occasion that he could get almost any reasonably fit person to the summit” (354). Confidence is essential in the guide service and attracting clients to Mt. Everest, however, Hall and Fischer’s view is bring this to a whole new level. Their arrogance also causes many of their clients to lower their guard, and not appreciate the the expedition and effort of climbing Mt. Everest. The Guide service is supposed to make things easier for climbers, but there are many issues that remain completely out of the guides control like the unpredictable mother nature. A can rock falling can kill any one at any given moment (It almost did to one of the protagonist’s friends on the trip), an avalanches and storms can strike without any slight warning, and no matter how prepared a guide is to face these obstacles he or she cannot avoid these factors and situations. Believing that one has all the factors for summiting the Mighty Mt. Everest under control is not the way a guide service should ever  be run.

Featured Image Found At:

Arrogance

Into Thin Time

This is a magazine cover for the novel Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  The quotes that I included in magazine are some of the most important key ideas during the rising action/ climax (I also hand-drew the mountain).  As the eleven climbers in the Mountain Madness Expedition group lead by Rob Hall, begin to climb up higher and higher in the mountain, they notice Mt. Everest is no easy accomplishment. Many die trying to climb Mt. Everest, however, most of these unfortunate deaths are forgotten and avoided. As the climbers begin their final ascent to the summit, many have forgotten the unstoppable power of mother -nature. And it might be to late to save them…

Into the Arms of Death

In the novel “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer, eleven mountain climbers come to Nepal to chase their dreams to climb the most challenging and tallest mountain of all. Mt. Everest. However, this is an accomplishment that many have died trying for. “Ascending Everest is a long, tedious process, more like a mammoth construction project than climbing as I’d previously known it” (77). Everest is a death trap to any slight human error. With Icefalls and deadly avalanches around the corner, you will be sent plummeting down to the bottom of the mountain. “ The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountain I’ve been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primary enduring pain. “ (40). By making the photos in my collage black and white it was able to show how challenging Mt. Everest was to undertake.  This team of climbers has to face the continuous Human vs. Nature during their ascent up Everest.  The climbers than realize that nothing is equivalent to the power of a single natural disaster.  With eleven mountain climbers all reaching for their dream,  “ I think it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll get through this season with something bad happening up high (104).”

Citations for Images:

Into Thin Air: by Jon Krakauer

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/dexodexo/6590115607/

http://impressivemagazine.com/2012/02/02/clouds-near-mount-everest/

Featured Image Found at:

http://wallpapers5.com/wallpaper/The-Hillary-Step-Mount-Everest-Nepal/