How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Oddly, most climbers on Everest knew less about Ngawang's plight than tens of thousands of people who were nowhere near the mountain […] due to the Internet. (8.40)
Into Thin Air was written at the onset of the Age of the Internet (if you can even imagine such a time). These are the days of slow-as-molasses 56K modems and AOL Instant Messenger—the good old days. Given this freshness, many of the climbers on Everest are shocked by the instantaneous nature of the World Wide Web.
Quote #5
Hall loved being a guide, and it pained him that some celebrated climbers […] didn't appreciate how difficult guiding was, or give the profession the respect he felt it deserved. (11.12)
The older generation of climbers has little fondness for modern commercial expeditions. But Hall has a point here: Although paid guiding is less glamorous than the expeditions of yore, the job requires many skills that even the most talented solo climber might be unable to match. Just look at Anatoli Boukreev for evidence of that: Dude's a stellar climber but an unfocused guide.
Quote #6
Relying on bottled oxygen as an aid to ascent is a practice that's sparked acrimonious debate ever since the British first took experimental oxygen rigs to Everest in 1921. (11.28)
Bottled oxygen represents the major conflict between the old-school approach to climbing and the modern one. For an old-school climber, using bottled oxygen to ascend a mountain devalues your accomplishment—it's like beating a video game with cheat codes. For a new-schooler, however, bottled oxygen is just another tool in a climber's arsenal.