Annabel's Online Journal

There are many examples of technical jargon throughout this book, this non fiction story uses many specialized vocabulary to explain the scenario the mountaineers are enduring at the time. This technical jargon dose not get explained throughout this book because they target people with the story and experience of mountain talk and this jargon usually talked about. Another reason they don’t explain this in the text is that the writer doesn’t want to distract the reader from the scenario thieve set in the book.

One of the technical jargon’s used in the text is “Ice Screws” This is explained in an important text in the book where Joe and Simon are conquering a steep ice shaft when Joe runs out of the screws causing a panic and dangerous situation he was in to later on continue without the simple safety ropes. These “ice screws” are a tubular screw used as a running belay or anchor when climbing ice or steep waterfalls. These hold the climber in the event of a fall, so they are very important necessity while climbing.

The term “Frost bitten” is used in the text as the result of the climbers cold body heat. Frostbite is an injury caused by the freezing of the skin. It is most common in the fingers, toes,nose ad ears. when these are exposed to th cold wind they are vulnerable to frost bite.

The Term “belayed” is a Rope used to hold and secure the person climbing up or down a rock.

When Joe and Simon are climbing the vertical ice shaft’s, there relationship between them becomes very important to the situation there in.  They are very assertive to one another especially communicating when something went wrong. For example when Joe ran out of ice screws, he had to yell to Simon but there was no reply, Joe might of been feeling a bit of frustration and nerves as he was stuck waiting for Simon,  from now this made him feel like he was on his own soloing it. Joe and Simon are both very Inter-dependent on each other as they are both looking out for one an other.  In the book Joe was in a situation where massive boulders of rocks where falling down in the path of them both, Joe then warned Simon about the danger, letting him have enough time to doge them and saving himself from potential death. There bond between each other is very important to reaching there goal of the summit, if they want to avoid any danger they will have to work together through communication and there drive for climbing and adventure. A problem they both might face for bonding is the capability to work with Richard as he has such a strong personal they might clash with decisions.

The environment the mountaineers were both in was a very dangerous and tough climb to endure, as they were scaling up thousands of feet of ice they both had to be very cautious of one an other and not slack off at any time. Both of the men were in tough situations during the time this required them to make some rational decisions that could effect their lives if they did it wrong. The challenges presented to them both will only get more challenging as they scale up the 21000 foot mountain, Siula Grande, with no chances of turning back they will have to endure the cold weather and deadly defiance’s.

The reader learns about joe’s past experiences climbing a mountain with Ian and how they both got into trouble causing them to be helicoptered out. i think this was a very important text in the book as it states how joes decisions effected their outcome and how he has had a dangerous past experienced, causing him to maybe be more cautious while climbing the mountain with Simon. The language features used in the text are foreshadowing Joe and Simon’s climb as they scale up this mountain, as Joe has had bad past experiences in climbing this tells us that he is more aware of his surroundings and potentially a useful source in emergencies that might occur for them both. This feature effects the readers understanding and keeps guessing whats coming next for them and purposefully setting a good environment to catch the reader off guard.

The images that are presented in this text create distinguished moods and relationships in our heads to understand the situations, For example when he says “I flung my sleeping bag across the tent roof” a sense of maybe frustration or defeat is going through the person at the time. This informs the reader  “My ordeal was the sight of my blackened fingertips” this snapshot created an understanding of the situation he was in and and the cold environment he was working with.  “The bitter feelings, however, hadn’t diminished” the vocabulary used in this text explains the feelings of this person who is obviously in a bad situation on the mountain, this has been used to present the emotions and circumstances  that the mountaineers are enduring.