“Anyone who has read Jon Krakauer’s
famous account of the 1996 Everest disaster, Into Thin Air, will remember 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.”
So after reading Krakauer’s account
I wanted have another point of view on the 1996 disaster. Of course, Left for dead showed to be a lot more
than just an account of the disaster. It is a grasping memoir that – I believe
– won’t leave anyone cold. Co-written with Stephen G. Michaud, it was first
published in 2000. The copy in my hands is a new edition published in 2015 with
a whole new preface by the author.
Everyone must be – by now – familiar
with the 1996 Everest disaster, if not by remembering the news or the accounts
following the tragedy then by seeing the 2015 feature film Everest. I became familiar with the disaster through the movie
mentioned. It was only much later when it occurred to me it was based on true
events. Many climbers met their fate on May 10 1996 on Everest. So did Beck
Weathers. He died on the mountain then but came back from the dead the next day
and dragged himself back to the High Camp. Everyone believed he wasn’t going to
live through the night so they helped him into a tent and left him to die. But
he refused to give up. Later he was helped to Camp One from where he was
evacuated with a helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu. From there started his
long journey back home to his family he had emotionally abandoned years ago.
“If you knew and believed that in one hour you would be dead, what would you think about? What would those last moments hold for you? It was no surprise
that at that point that I could see before me my wife, Peach, and my two
children. In my mind’s eye, they were clear as if they were standing next to
me. Maybe your last thoughts will be different, but I can assure you that they
will not focus on your success or any material aspects of your existence.”
Left for dead is
a moving documentation on personal issues that drove the author apart from the
people who love him. It tells a story of a depressed person who thinks he can
only be good, loved and accepted if he achieves “goals” such as the Seven
Summits Quest. As for one who has experienced depression, it is easy to
understand why it was so difficult for the author to receive the love his family
tried to give. Because when you’re not feeling well, you cannot take in the
good things in life because you think you’re undeserving of them. That you need
to prove something to deserve them. It makes me sad it required such a
catastrophe for the author to see things in the right light. But at the same
time I’m happy that he opened his eyes and was still able to fix his life and
family.
I think Left for dead is an amazing growth story in which the author has
forced himself to face his demons he tried to run away from for so long. His
story truly shows that miracles do happen. First miracle was that he came back
from the dead. Second was that he changed his course and became a different
man. Sometimes it just requires a journey to Everest to make one see what
really matters in life. For Beck Weathers the disaster became his salvation and
way home. He learned to live in a moment, not in the future and came to see his
errors and reasons behind his need to achieve great goals. I believe he is
finally able to overpower his depression and lead happy and fulfilling life.
I would recommend people to read Left for dead – my journey home from Everest
because it gives an insight on what life is like when you can never be
happy and at peace. It also proves that people can change if they are willing
to. This book really made me cry, laugh and feel with Beck and his family and
friends.
