Two quotations that show the character's personality.

"Finally I woke up enough to recognize that I was in deep shit and the cavalry wasn't coming so I better do something about it myself"(252).

Climbers like Jon Krakauer had to dig deep within themselves to find strength they didn't even know they had.

"Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the most unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable"(20).

Jon Krakauer wasn't a man to take the easy rout whether going through life or climbing a mountain.