I didn't read this in high school like so many others, but I did read "Into Thin Air," which I thought was a spectacular read as it was about adventures and calamity. While I have at times judged Chris and his fatal adventure, I try not to although much of the book's discussion does so. Much has already been said in the book and by Alaskans of Chris's short-sightedness, and this is a young man who had a specific sense of meaning to life that appears incompatible with what we're used to. Probably because his family wanted him to follow a 'normal' path!

In my opinion, the author puts Chris on a pedestal sometimes, but maybe because he both identifies with Chris's "agitation of the soul" and finds Chris superior to him. After all, a lot of the book is dedicated to Chris's achievements in his short life: his intellect, making money, coding, athletics, social causes, and so on. The book also introduces Chris's contradictions, which I believe are very much part of anyone's life.

I feel like Chris could wow people but dip to avoid baring the vulnerability of his true self [that intensity his Emory classmates witnessed]. I guess Chris frustrates me because so many people cared about him but he tried not to be close, maybe failing to consider how dying in Alaska could hurt people. In the book's most poignant example, Ron Franz saw losing Chris as akin to losing a son. After losing his faith, he relapsed.

I'm not sure if he made peace with his father by cutting himself off, going West, and forging a new identity [by not talking about his past or by claiming he was from a more rugged place like West Virginia or the Dakotas]. Dishonesty gets me too, so I relate to Chris on that on how families can hide shit.

Chris was 24 and I am 24. I feel very young and I think that is a big part of Chris too. The author writes, "I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing." I am coming of age in a time where pluralities of meaning are abundant, but a lot of them involve finding the self through travel as the author attempted. Move to Berlin, or partake in a volunteer or missionary trip to the Global South. Social media and its toxic positivity exacerbate the fear of missing out.

To those journeys of self-discovery, I lack the confidence any of that could be for me. Perhaps I'm dulled already by things that I tried that didn't help. But in his way, Chris believed in that, and I find that impressive he found for himself "real life," even as it possibly concluded "lonely" and "scared."

I really like Krakauer's writings and should check out more.