Perspective

Jon Krakauer is a journalist by trade, and his initial reason for going on the Everest expedition is to write an article about the experience of climbing as part of a commercial expedition. The perspective is in the first person, but with a journalistic viewpoint. Krakauer often seems removed from the subject, describing events as objectively as possible, as one would expect in a journalistic article. For example, he is sometimes critical of his fellow climbers, even though elsewhere he describes them as friends.

While Krakauer tries to maintain a journalistic perspective throughout the book, the ordeal that he must pass through along with the rest of the climbers on the mountain is so serious that the wall between a journalist and his subject is torn down. Krakauer cannot simply treat the subject as an outside observer because he becomes an integral part of the story, affecting its...