Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer's third novel, adapted from an article he published in Outside magazine following the tragic events of May 1996 on the slopes of Mt. Everest. At the time of its publication in 1997, Into Thin Air garnered widespread attention as the story of the deadliest climbing season in the history of Mt. Everest. It became a bestseller, reaching #1 on the New York Times nonfiction list, and it was a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in General Non-Fiction. It has since been adapted into the TV movie Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997) and the feature film Everest (2015).
The book is not without controversy, however. Later in 1997, Anatoli Boukreev published The Climb, which gives an alternative account of events more critical of the Adventure Consultants team. This was in response to what Boukreev--senior guide for the Mountain Madness team--perceived to be an unfairly critical depiction of his actions in Krakauer's narrative.
