meaning

a) Jon Krakauer had climbed seven hundred feet since he stepped off the glacier.

b) Krakauer got into a rhythm that gave him confidence to climb the crumbly armor of frost feathers.

c) The frost feathers were 5 inches thick.

d) The ice got too thin to climb so Jon had to climb down.

tone 

ai) The noun phrase “frost feathers” creates a fearful tone by giving the mental image that the ice is weak and he might fall as in the quotes “frost feathers became thinner” : this means that as he goes higher it gets thinner and soon it won’t be able to hold his weight.

aii) The adjective steeper is used to create a fearful tone like when he writes “the wall however , had been growing imperceptibly steeper” .This means the ice is getting steeper by letting the reader think that soon he will be hanging off the edge. Combined with the adverb imperceptibly this creates a sense of drama because Jon does notice that it is getting more and more steep.

aiii) the adverb awkwardly is used to create a fearful tone like when he writes ” Awkwardly, stiff with fear,”. the adverb awkwardly heightens the sense of fear because he is seven hundred feet up and now suddenly lost the rhythm that help him before. Awkwardly also conveys his mental state as well as his physical state described in previous paragraphs.

by Anthony Watson