Into Thin Air Character Analysis

Jon Krakauer Jon Krakauer is a journalist hired by Outside magazine to write about the trend of unskilled climbers buying their way onto Everest. He is the most experienced ice climbers on his team. He is one of the first to summit from his team. He returns to Camp Four before anyone else.

Rob Hall The head guide of Adventure Consultants, the Everest climbing service that guides Krakauer up the mountain. Hall is an esteemed climber, having summited the tallest mountain in each of the seven continents in a period of only seven months. He also develops a reputation as the perfect Everest Guide. At the time, he had gotten more clients to the top than any other guide. He is rule-follower who goes “by the book.”

Anatoli Boukreev A guide with Scott Fischer's group, Boukreev is a world-respected climber who had previously summited Everest with no supplemental oxygen. He summits without oxygen during this climb. He rescues the group of climbers stranded in the storm, but he is also thought to have contributed to the disaster by descending far ahead of his clients.

Andy Harris A guide in Rob Hall's expedition. Harris is from New Zealand, and he grows close to Krakauer during the climb. Harris is one of the more selfless guides on the expedition. He comes to the assistance of anyone and everyone without hesitation, and eventually that same sense of loyalty turns out to be his downfall.

Scott Fischer The head guide of the Mountain Madness expedition group. Fischer and Hall are friends and competitors. Fischer is a renowned climber, infamous for his efforts to help remove waste from Everest. This is his first commercial tour guiding people up Everest. He has a more relaxed approach to climbing than Hall. Fischer gets seriously ill about halfway through the climb, but climbs on undeterred.

Yasuko Namba A Japanese business woman whose attempt to climb Everest gained much notoriety in Japan for attempting to reach all 7 of the seven highest summits. When she reaches the top of Everest on May 10, 1996, she becomes the oldest woman to do so at 47 and the second Japanese woman to summit all 7.

Beck Weathers Weathers is a doctor from Texas with a passion for mountain climbing. He is the least experienced climber on his team. Krakauer calls him the “definition of commercialization.” He is left for dead after a group of clients get lost in a storm, but amazingly regains consciousness and manages to walk to camp.

Doug Hansen A client with Hall’s Adventure Consultants team. Hansen is a postal worker who has his climb sponsored by a local elementary school. He climbed Everest one year before but failed to reach the summit, turning back just a few hundred feet from the top. He and Krakauer become close friends. Hansen is at the summit with Hall when the storm hits on May 10th.

Stuart Hutchinson A Canadian doctor and client with Adventure Consultants. Deciding that they would be unlikely to reach the summit before the 1:00 pm turn-around time, Hutchinson, Taske and Kasischke all forego their summit dreams and head back to camp 4. Hutchinson is a strong climber, and when Hall and the other guides are stranded on the mountain, he steps in as leader to rescue his teammates.

Mike Groom An Australian guide with Adventure Consultants. Groom gets lost with a group of clients during the descent, but survives. He also guides Beck Weathers down the mountain when Beck goes blind.

Sandy Pittman An employee of NBC who is along on the expedition to dispatch media files. This is her third attempt to climb Everest. She was at one time in contention to be the first woman to successfully climb the highest mountain in each of the seven continents.

Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa Fischer’s main Sherpa. Lopsang is exceedingly loyal to Fischer, and helps secure ropes and haul supplies all the way up the mountain. Most notably, he pulls (short ropes) Sandy Pittman up the mountain when she is too tired to climb herself. Lopsang tries to save Fischer after the storm hits, but he cannot because he is exhausted from short-roping Pittman.

Ang Dorje Sherpa Rob Hall's number one Sherpa. Dorje performs with near heroics frequently during the ascent, always helping other climbers and exhausting himself with the effort he exerts for others. He attempts to find Hall during the summit, but cannot climb high enough.

Guy Cotter Part of the Adventure Consultants Base Camp team. He is a close friend of Rob Hall’s. He is the person who communicates with Rob Hall during the snowstorm of May 10.

IMAX Team David Breashears is an old friend of Jon Krakauer’s He is the leader of the IMAX Everest expedition. Ed Viesturs is an American climber who is starring in the IMAX film about Mount Everest. The IMAX team steps in to help with communications and rescue efforts during the storm.