Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks - My Life in the Death Zone

I loved the color photos and I agree that it is amazing that he broke many mountian climbing records. He has determination and ambition like no one that I ever met.

But his ego, made me draw away from the book. And my heart broke over his mother's heart problems, I wanted tell him, "You are young, it would hurt to put off your climbing goals and take care of your parents". The last photo in the book is of Nimsai Purja with his casually draped on his mother's shoulders and big smile on his face. His mother's expression is one of sad betrayal. I know that he has achieved incredible things but I would rather spend time with his mother, comforting her than with him.

It is possible that I am misreading the picture but that is what I felt.

Fans of Jon Krakauer's _into the Wild_ (and other adventure reads in this vein) will undoubtedly enjoy Nims Purja's _Beyond Possible_. (It actually probably helped that I'd read _Into the Wild_ previously, as it prepped me for some of the content here--both in adventuring, and in, frankly, bad language. But this one lacked the crudeness of Krakauer's, which I am grateful for.)

It took me a bit to get into, partly due to the aforementioned language: it's like Krakauer, as mentioned, or--to channel a movie reference, the _Speed_ of books--action packed, and gripping for sure, but holy smokes, can the f-bombs stop already?--enough that I nearly set the read aside several times. Then, it was partly due to my own wonderings of "the point" show more aside from chronicling his endeavors. Admirable--absolutely! I simply felt that the first half of the book, in particular, illustrated the wide divide between my own mindset and Purja's. (Which I didn't even fully articulate until now.) He really is in a class by himself!

Challenging as it was, at times, I did regularly find encouragement to persevere through tough times (even though they'll inevitably be very different from his)--tough love, as it were. Several parts also saw me waiting with bated breath to find out what happened. Would permits be granted for the elusive 14th peak? Would he summit (I asked several times)? Would his mom's health last through to see him finish his quest? #allthequestions

Purja really is a talented writer, language aside. I was also challenged a bit as a reader with a very different worldview--he is not religious, while I am a Christian. I kept thinking, were I on any of these summits, how could they not testify to the existence of a Creator--at the very least? Nature has long testified of God's existence to me, and I hope that one day Purja sees the same. There were also several references to "finding your truth," and I'll freely admit that phrase frustrates me to no end, heh.

Would I recommend the book? Cautiously, yes, given the caveats above. Am I glad I persevered and finished it? Yes.

3.5 stars out of 5.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. show less