OCTOBER 24 “LOVE OF THE FAMILY”

 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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