Into Thin Air first post

I feel like the over all personality of this memoir is one of beauty and sadness. The author is very descriptive. You can tell the author likes the wilderness and in particular the mountaineering aspect of it.    For example "the trail took us past glades of juniper and dwarf birch, blue pine and rhododendron, thundering water falls, enchanting boulder gardens, burbling streams." in this quote there are so many visual details it almost feels like he included a picture of the trail. Here is another beautiful description. " The ink-black wedge of the summit pyramid stood out in stark relief, towering over the surrounding ridges.  Thrust high in to the jet stream, the mountain ripped visible gash in the 120 knot hurricane, sending forth a plume of ice crystals that trailed into the east like a long silk scarf." This is a great description of his first sight of Everest.      
At the same time, I also feel like this book has somber feel to it. This quote shows the melancholy tone in the authors writing , "Twenty some stone monuments stood in a somber row along the crest of the glacier's terminal moraine, overlooking the mist-filled valley: memorials to climbers who had died on Everest, most of them Sherpa." I feel like the use of terminal, somber and the description of the valley add to sadness that surrounds the personality of the reading. Though this may just be me knowing that there will be a disaster and that many more people will die on the Everest. Although I see him write about the beginning of descent of Everest there has been no other clear foreshadowing that I have run into so far. The clearest description of the disaster is in the intro of the book. From what the intro said to it seemed sad and almost as if the book were in mourning. "The plain truth is that I knew better but went to Everest any way. And in doing so I was a party to the death of good people, witch is something that is at to remain on my conscience for a very long time." It is interesting to me that the personality of the book can have such contrasting themes.