About this deal
Future adventurers who have read Olson's nonfiction title Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World's Most Dangerous Mountain or the fictional Peak (Smith) or Everest (Korman) series, Beyond Possible offers a fascinating look at what it takes to climb these imposing peaks right now. This is a shorter book (just over 150 pages) that I can see being popular with readers who like nonfiction tales about war or adventures. His wife, Suchi, gets (well-deserved) thanks for allowing their house to be remortgaged so he can fund his dream. He also seems to be claiming credit for spearheading cleaning up the mountains, and he has launched a very public endeavor (good!
The way how Nims took all the challenges, setbacks and doubts, and turned them into something positive is admirable. The first half of the book is geared towards his life up to the point he decides to make the lifestyle transition necessary to climb all fourteen peaks. After reading this, I have massive respect for him and the entire team of Sherpas who, working as a team, overcome a variety of struggles and life-threatening situations, and his family for letting him be who he is. As someone who came to mountain climbing later in life (around age 30), he discovered he has an amazing lung capacity and could naturally climb more quickly and easily than others.His exhilarating narrative captures the physical and mental toll he experienced while careening down the sides of mountains and ascending lethally steep slopes in “brutal, whiteout conditions. I also would love to read his account about the recent achievement when his crew summited K2 on winter.
The book is more about inspiring readers to summit their personal mountains than it is about the mountains themselves. Reading about someone mountain climbing can get to be a bit much, with all the details bogging down the story, but Purja is a good story teller, weaving in mountain details, the stress of climbing and rescuing climbers, and his interactions with other climbers. I think the book is a fine supplement to the documentary, so if you're reaching for it for that reason, as I did, I recommend it. To scale the tallest 14 Death Zone peaks of the world is difficult; to climb them in six months and six days is an extreme case of dedication, strength, stamina and luck. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance.Pushing on to achieve a goal when all signs point to the incredible danger to life and limb -- a mission to bring attention to the environmental impacts of mountaineering on these peaks while traipsing rapidly through them left me unsettled.