What are the motifs in The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev?

The uncertain dangers of climbing is a motif throughout this account of climbing Everest. In Chapter 4, DeWalt quotes the experienced mountain guide Henry Todd as saying, "You don't know who's going to come good and who's going to go bad. You can get the best climbers not perform, and you can get other people who are very marginal who are just utterly determined and will be successful."