I have this facination with climbing Everest. It all started in 1996 - prior to the big storm that traped and killed 6 climbers; the one "Into Thin Air" is bassed upon. I happened to catch a TV documentary about the effects of high altitude on the brain. They were following some climbers up Everest and making them do some mental testing at varrious altitudes. They were also following some climbers who have summited Everest and other high mountains several times, especially those that climb with out supplemental oxygen. I was facinated by the subject, and the riggors of climbing Everest too.
Then, a few months later I hear about the horrible storm and accidents on Everest. I was very interested and tried to find all the related news about Everest. Being that the internet was such an infant at the time, there was not much available out there. So about a year later when I was shopping for Christmas gifts I saw the book "Into Thin Air" and purchased it with no second thoughts. I finished it in one 6hr flight across the country!
I have been following any silly reports, and even the TLC reality, over hyped, TV show about climbing Everest. Finally, I ran across more books related to the 1996 dissaster and climbing Everest in general. I am hooked.
So, I just finished Left for Dead. It is by Beck Weathers, one of the surviving members of the expidation caught on the mountain. While I did not remember his name from the orginal tale I read, I do remember him. He had surgery on his eyes to eliminate his nearsightedness, and in the high altitude the sugically altered eyes changed even more, and he became blind. (I can't imagine trying to navigate Everest without clear vision!) When Bill had his surgery, I remember teasing him that he would never be able to climb Everst now.
On to the book .... the subtitle of this book is "my journey home from everest" and therefore I expected it to contain both the events of his climb, and his recovering ... the journey being both physical and mental/emotional. The truth is, the book ended up being vastly different than I imagined. This difference was both dissapointing and interesting; I know, quite a contridiction. Turns out, Weathers does not really remember much of what happened while on Everest. He does remember and tells what happened in the events leading up to his freezing, both physically and emotionally, but many of the details contained within the book are tales he heard from others up on the mountain. I can totally understand this, as the man was basiclly frozen to death up there, and in fact I distinctly remember reading in Krakauer's Into Thin Air how Weathers was found and then left to finish dieing. Such an emotionally traumatic event, coupled with the physical trauma of freezing and high altitude/lack of oxygen, would probably be quite a catalyst to cause the brain loose those memories.
But when by page 110, of a 350ish page book, he was done with his account of the climb, tradegy, rescue and recovery, I was both intregued and annoyed. The rest of the book (except for 5 pages of the Epilog that skims some of his later surgeries and recovery treatments) is about his life prior to the 1996 tradegy. And I mean ALL of his life, starting from being 2-3yrs old. He goes through all these periods in his life prior to mountain climbing, and retells some pertinent memories or happenings that you are supposed to assume had a related effect on him and therefore are part of his climbing history. (at least that is how I was reading it) Then we get to his climbing obsession, and an account of each major mountain he climbed in preperation to climb Everest. We even get a brief account of his training and what he was doing wrong. All of this was kinda interesting because it really does get into his head, and some of what you would assume are similar traits for all those insane folks that are obsessed with such a dangerous sport. So in some way I was enjoying the recount of his life. But truely, I was looking for more of how he delt with the aftermath of his trauma. I wanted to know how his spirit endured, and what he learned from this experience. The lack of direct focus on this part was very dissapointing to me. But, I do keep turning much of the book over in my head and have come to the realization that, by reliving previous events, he was admitting many of his mistakes, and while not specifically mentioning what he'd do differenly, he was sharing his emotional recovery. A different approach than I had envisioned, but I guess in the end it sort of, kind of, addressed what I was expecting it to, just in a very different manner. Like I said, dissapointing and interesting all at the same time.
I did pull one very good thing out of the book. He talks about not being able to live in the moment or for the present. And until reading his account of this I guess I never truely understood what this ment. (I am too good at this) But now I believe I turely understand the concept, and when I say I do not set goals, I can explain it better. What I mean is I live more in the moment; my daily actions and life is not lived to acomplish some future goal of mine. My life is lived for today. Yes, with the knowledge of tommorow and the future, but
