Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest |
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dell
Average Customer Rating:  
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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522092
EAN: 9780440237082
ISBN: 0440237084
Label: Dell
Manufacturer: Dell
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2001-11-06
Publisher: Dell
Release Date: 2001-11-06
Studio: Dell
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Editorial Reviews:
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“I can tell you that some force within me rejected death at the last moment and then guided me, blind and stumbling — quite literally a dead man walking — into camp and the shaky start of my return to life....”
In 1996 Beck Weathers and a climbing team pushed toward the summit of Mount Everest. Then a storm exploded on the mountain, ripping the team to shreds, forcing brave men to scratch and crawl for their lives. Rescuers who reached Weathers saw that he was dying, and left him.
Twelve hours later, the inexplicable occurred. Weathers appeared, blinded, gloveless, caked with ice — coming down the mountain as a “dead man walking.”
In this powerful memoir, Weather describes not only his escape from hypothermia and the murderous storm that killed nine climbers; he describes another journey, a life’s journey. This is the story of a man’s route to a dangerous sport and a fateful expedition, as well as the road of recovery he has traveled since.
In Left for Dead, we are witness to survival in the face of certain death, the reclaiming of a family and a life, and the most remarkable adventure of all: what we can do when we’re offered a second chance.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: ANOTHER EVEREST MEMOIR FROM 1996
Comment: I expected a dramatic book about mountaineering (in the beginning), survival, and determination but got mainly a memoir about family problems, bouts with depression, childhood and earlier climbs. I really tried to like Beck and I do admire his ability to come back from death and recover; but does one need all this drama and trauma to make a man realize that his family and loved ones come first and are the main things in life, and you don't have to climb a giant mountain to understand? In my observations, I always find obsessions a bit weird and off-center in life. In fairness to Beck, the 1996 story has been professionally and strategically told by others, so maybe he and his ghost writer had to fluff up the pages to make a book. There was definitely enough for a great magazine story but a stretch to find over 300 pages to keep the reader interested. Enough said...Beck, hope you're back on the job and helping others like so many helped you. Mabuhay!
Customer Rating:
Summary: left for dead
Comment: For a real life story it does not get much more real than this, a passion becomes an obsession that takes away the hero status that he was aiming for in the first place? . I found it easy to read. A bit of soft filling in the middle and couldn't really relate to the relationship with his wife.
Customer Rating:
Summary: RE: Mt Everest
Comment: As one of the other reviewers had written, I too have becme nearly obsessed with the events surrounding the tragic events of May 1996. I have read every book I can find on the subject.
Dr. Weathers book is very well written. It gives perspective from his wife and friends view as they waited his return and the sadness and then apprehension when they find he is still alive but in dire trouble.
I'd highly recommend this book. it is inspirational - his courage - his acceptance of what happened.
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Summary: Not for mountaineers
Comment: If you like to read about real mountaineering, try a book by Joe Simpson or Jon Krakauer. If you want to read a book about a guy who blows off his family to climb, and all the damage he does because of it, then this book is ideal for you.
I was hoping to read a survival story, instead I got family dynamics.
Customer Rating:
Summary: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN IDIOT TRIES TO CLIMB EVEREST...
Comment: 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 Everest trip 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 the mountain. 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 which 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.
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