Wonderful book! Before I start, let me clarify a thing, I knew when I started reading that it wouldn’t be a pure adventure survival story that merely focuses on Beck’s journey on Everest. With this being said, let’s go! When I fell into this fascinating rabbit hole of high altitude mountaineering and especially everything Mount Everest related material I started with reading through blogs and wikipedia articles to gather my knowledge on the vocabulary, then came the documentaries and short videos and then there was only one question left: Why? Why do people do this, it’s unethical for themselves, the environment and their loved ones, it’s beyond expensive and incredible dangerous, what makes people risk their life to stand on top of some very high pile of rock, ice, debris and human trash? So I turned to (auto-)biographies, to try to find answers. And I did find them, in Beck Weathers’ own words, how he tells his (spiritual and emotional) journey home from Everest. And that’s where people might have expected something else from the book and where they could have been disappointed in it. What the book can give is a very insightful, well written, spiced up with a lovely dry humour, reflection of a man’s life. Driven by his own darkness that he tries to fight in his own ways, by out-climbing it, he takes his miracle and tragedy on Mount Everest in May 1996 and uses this turning point to reflect who he was, what brought him up the mountains and eventually back down to his family. It is not an adventure turned tragedy story, if you want that, stay with “Into Thin Air”, if you want to hear a person’s own words about the incident and if you want to answer the question of why someone would do such a thing, you can find it here! Beck’s way of writing fits his personality, rational, logical and a little cool toned, you will have to look closely to find his emotions underneath. It is funny (very dry!), honest and very clear but not dull. On a personal level I relate to him, as much as a woman, who could be his granddaughter by age, can relate to an US American pathologist. I understand his depression and darkness, I understand how it feels to rationalise everything, even when I am deeply moved and touched, how it can be difficult to show and feel true emotions. I also understand the struggle and the yearning to find something that will bring me the respect of people around me and also to run and hide my demons. I may not climb mountains but I also try to outrun mine. It’s a wonderful book, about the realities of mountaineering, a man’s way through life, his struggle with mental health and depression and also how he celebrates people that influenced and shaped and colored his life. I would even like to call it somehow “slice of life” at parts, easy and quick to read. I was never bored once and I was always curious to see what he would tell me next. And sure, I loved his mountaineering stories the most but I stayed for Beck himself. As I’ve said, I relate to him.