Blog #27 Nature Writing

1. How do specific mental and emotional qualities (such as confidence, self-control, and more) make a person fit to climb Everest but also possibly lead to disaster?

When climbing Everest, the qualities of confidence is definitely required or all hopes of ever reaching the summit will be lost. While having confidence makes a person fit to make the incredible climb, it’s when a persons confidence turns into arrogance is where room for disaster is made. The guides are the ones that need to have the most confidence out of the entire team because they are the ones whom the entire group confides in to ensure that they make it to the top as well as return safely.

While the guides are supposed to have the confidence to take a team to the summit of Everest, the two guides in this story had a little more arrogance than that of confidence. The guides are obviously supposed to build up the comfort level with the group they are working with, but Fischer and Hall lowered their group’s guards down. While Fischer and Hall were able to tell everyone which step to take and advice on living conditions on the mountain, the natural occurrences is something completely out of their control.

The occurrences of the bad weather and harsh conditions during their expedition to the summit is what led to many disasters. The qualities of arrogance and letting up their guard are what caused this to happen. The unexpected avalanches and storms completely shocked the team and set up down fall for the rest of the trip.

When Krauker meets Fischer he tells him that he has “built a yellow brick road up to the summit.” Of course this statement is supposed to give Krauker the ability to trust that choosing him as a guide would be a good choice because he would be able to get him to the summit. The other guide Hall was just as guilty for having the arrogance of getting to the summit in safe and sound conditions with nothing to go wrong. Hall "bragged on more than one occasion that he could get almost any reasonably fit person to the summit" Of course the two guides didn’t take into accountability that even though they were strong enough and “fit” enough to get to the summit, and have done it multiple times, it was the weather that turned their expedition into a disaster.


2. What is the significance that more guides than clients died on Everest in the events of the story?

The fact that more guides died than clients is significant because that occurrence basically says that no matter how skilled and experienced you are, nature is unknown. Even though the guides had climbed Everest multiple times, there are different situations that are unknown. For example, the dangerous weather conditions that the guides thought would be attainable caused tragedy on their trip. No matter how experienced and fit you are to climb to the summit of Everest, there is still the unknown of the natural events that could happen. When you’re in the wild, you can’t expect everything to go perfectly right because most of the time, that isn’t the case. You cant let your guard down and you have to expect the unexpected.