Boukreev's Into Thin Air

Anatoli Boukreev wrote this response in order to defend himself of the accusations that Krakauer mentioned in “Into Thin Air,” which he wrote for a magazine. Boukreev’s intention for writing was to justify and clarify the actions that Krakauer included in his report, since Boukreev believed that Krakauer was unjustly critical of his actions and decisions on Mount Everest, he wanted to argue for himself. Boukreev begins by establishing on what were his decisions and actions were based upon, which he claims was his experience. He states that he has climbed the Everest three times, and also that he has summited, approximately, 19 mountains over 8,000 meters in elevation without the use of supplementary oxygen. He includes this statement at the beginning of
his response in order to expose how experienced he was, in other words, to show that he knew what he was doing. He follows defending his decision of going back to camp IV quickly. He states that he was concerned descending climbers could possibly run out of oxygen before returning to camp, so he decided to climb down as quickly as possible in order to warm himself, and get prepared to go back up to the mountain in case the descending climbers needed his help.
His purpose, he says, was to re-supply the clients with oxygen, warming tea, and support for them to get safe to camp. He also argued that the weather didn’t show any signs for them to know that it was going to change in that harsh way, which is also something than Krakauer said in his report. The weather was unpredictable, and since he didn’t see any danger in the weather, he was comfortable with that decision. He also noticed that Krakauer questioned his climbing without oxygen and the way he was dressed on summit day. He said that Boukreev’s choice of not using supplementary oxygen compromised his effectiveness, and that the clothes he was wearing were not adequate. Therefore, Boukreev defends himself, saying that it has been his practice to climb without supplementary oxygen, he was used to it and it was safer for him, and that there are photographs proving how his clothes were high quality and perfectly adequate for the
expedition. He then concludes saying how events could have happened differently, how this terrible experience can now lead them to think clearly about what can happen while climbing at high altitudes, and that now it can only be a lesson to learn from and to reduce risk for future climbers.