OCTOBER 24 "LOVE OF THE FAMILY - LEFT FOR DEAD"
That appalling figure was Beck Weathers, the
author of this surprisingly cheerful book. Weathers was left for dead not once
but twice during the disastrous day in 1996 which left nine climbers dead on Mount
Everest. Part of one hand was saved, his nose was reconstructed surgically, and
his sight came back before he left Everest, but his climbing days are finished.
Ordinary
life was too boring to distract him away from his depression. Danger and
crucial details of equipment and planning were able to mask his despair with
the result that his life was completely unbalanced in favor of mountain
climbing, with the summit of Everest the goal. As those at base camp watched
Beck Weathers, barely recognizable stumble into camp they thought they were
seeing his ghost. They had left Beck for dead days earlier as they passed him
up on the way down to base camp, there was Beck, frozen inside an ice cocoon and
they simply passed him up as dead. Yet when Beck was getting ready to die on
the mountain, it was, he says, a vision of his family which roused him to break
free of the ice that encased him and stumble back to camp.
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