>>368242You don't get it: the guy without oxygen saved the others who were actually using oxygen.
Boukreev knew what he was doing, something Krakauer can't possibly understand, because he's one of those people who are stupid enough to think they can "buy security", one of the reasons Boukreev later avoided the Everest and all the bullshit surrounding it. People feel too much like they're on a field trip, they aren't true mountaineers, and simply aren't trained enough.
The thing is, Krakauer holds Boukreev as "responsible" of this accident, because he didn't use oxygen, which Krakauer sees as "taking a risk", and because he decided to go back down to rest and climb back up later to help people, which Krakauer sees as "giving up on people". Krakauer thinks he could have saved more people if he had been using oxygen and stayed up there to help them, which Boukreev said would have been riskier. Who's right? The journalist on his first 8000er, or the experienced mountaineer who had climbed almost all 8000ers already?
Boukreev's expedition was the only one to make it back safely, and he helped several people from three other expeditions he wasn't the slightest responsible. To everyone on the Everest, he remains a hero. Boukreev was a very skilled mountaineer, there's no arguing that. Hence why Krakauer is a massive faggot.
Actually, to draw another parallel with "the Big Blue", Boukreev was the real mountaineer with a passion, a lot like the Jacques Mayol of the movie, so much of a hero you could think he's fictional. Krakauer is a lot more like the real Jacques Mayol: an asshole, whose story led many people to follow in his steps. Mayol gave birth to a reckless sport that led many freedivers to lose their lives in the depths, and is as much responsible as Krakauer is for the many deaths on the Everest during the last 15 years.
Mayol hated himself so much for that, he hanged himself. Krakauer is too much of an asshole to feel guilt.
