Product Description

Anyone who read Jon Krakauer's account of the 1996 Everest disaster, "Into Thin Air", will be aware of the story of Beck Weathers: the gregarious Texan climber who went snow-blind in the Death Zone below the summit and who spent a night out in the open during a blizzard that took the lives of a dozen colleagues and friends. Even as he staggered back into Camp 4 the next morning, Beck's condition was such that the other survivors assumed he would not make it back down the mountain. He was effectively left for dead, but drawing upon reserves of determination and courage he didn't know he had - as well as the extraordinary selflessness and bravery of a Nepalese helicopter pilot he'd never met - he finally made it to safety. Only then could a new battle begin: to rebuild his life with a family he'd taken for granted for too long.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #863455 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 286 pages

New York Times Book Review
"An engaging memoir . . . Candid [and] moving . . ."

About the Author
Beck Weathers trained as a medical doctor and now lectures across the United States. His co-writer, Stephen G. Michaud, is a former editor at NEWSWEEK and the co-author of eight books.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
The first two chapters were an excellent account of what is now a well known story. However, after that, the book switches from the climbing to the history of the Weathers' family. I found this added little to the story. If it's a climbing book you want, I would ignore this.

Not what I expected
The big problem with this book is its been billed as a book on mountaineering and often placed in the adventure sections. Its not a book on mountaineering. Its more of an apology to his long suffering wife and family for being a self obsessed climber. Unless I was studying pyschology I won't bother. I read it, the hubby got bored when he realised the mountain story was only two chapters. It is well written and it is a good book but its not a mountaineering or travel or adventure book.

LEFT FOR DEAD....LUCKY TO BE ALIVE...LUCKY TO BE READ...
This book has a great title, as it sums up Beck Weathers' Mt. Everest experience. Unfortunately, this is the only great thing about this book. It is, at best, a mildly interesting book. The only truly interesting part is his recollection of the 1996 Everest trip, which saw his expedition gripped in the fierce storm that struck, and its immediate aftermath. His survival, which is truly amazing, is almost glossed over and turned into a sad soap opera about a marriage gone stale with time.

It does seem that Beck's patient wife, Peach, had been ill treated in the sense that he would go off to do some amateur mountain climbing (with the emphasis on amateur), leaving her with the kids for weeks at a time and remaining incommunicado. Since her voice is interspersed throughout this book, you can see why he might want to get away. A more insipid voice, I can't imagine. She is what is bad about this book. Yet, at the same time it was her efforts, along with those of her friends, which were the catalyst for the herculean helicopter rescue by Colonel Madan K.C. who brought Beck down from Mt. Everest. Still, she is an utter bore.

What is good about the book is Beck's sense of humor and his indomitable spirit, which is undoubtedly what kept him alive in unbelievably harsh conditions on Everest. Though it is those like him who, financially able to go on these expeditions but lacking the technical skill to effectively navigate the harsh terrain, put themselves and others at risk. While it is clear that he was delighted to be rubbing shoulders with the mountaineering elite on Everest, it did not seem to dawn on him that he was just another foolhardy dilettante who, though having had some climbing experience, simply did not belong on Everest. It is this hubris that brought him to this pass. Quite frankly, given his description of his mountaineering efforts on some of the world's other tall peaks, it is a miracle he was not left for dead long before Everest.