Selflessness and Ambition The theme of selflessness is shown over and over throughout Into Thin Air. In one instance, a sherpa named Tenzing was climbing with a group of four others before stepping onto a thin piece of ice on the mountain, causing it to collapse beneath him. He fell 150 feet down the mountain into a crevasse. The four other sherpas with him rushed to his aid and began lifting him out of the crevasse, they carried him approximately 3,000 feet down to base camp (Krakauer 57-61). Another instance tells of a climber named Beck, who was left by others for dead, twice. Another group had encountered Beck, who would not give up and succumb to his injuries. Of that group were Athan and Burleson, who carried Beck approximately 4,000 feet until a helicopter was able to get to them to bring Beck to Camp 1 (Krakauer 273-274). The theme of ambition is also found many times throughout the novel. Scott Fischer, an Everest climber, is one of the best examples of ambition in …show more content…
Everest is one of the most high-stakes places on Earth, one wrong move could be fatal, truly showing the ambition of climbers and the selflessness of those who