Bear won’t let a few broken vertebrae stop him!

I love reading books about people living really, really adventurous/dangerous lives — especially mountain climbers. Mountain climbing fascinates me, because it seems like something I could possibly do (hey, I lift weights, I run, I hike — how hard could it be?) until I read peoples’ accounts and realize 1) it’s really cold up there and 2) no way in hell could I do that because I am a total weenie. I also love Bear Grylls, despite (as my husband continually reminded me while I read this book) the whole thing about his show not being 100% true. Dude. It’s reality TV. Of course parts of it are fake. But he still did some really interesting and crazy shit, and he did it all while looking adorable and speaking in a British accent, so I’m going to allow it.

Bear Grylls broke his back in his early 20s, in a parachuting accident. He spent months in the hospital, and almost lost the use of his legs. 18 months later, at the age of 23, he became one of the the youngest people (at the time) to climb Everest. That’s…that’s pretty impressive.

Grylls may not be the world’s greatest author (and I found like 3 typos in the first 2 chapters, so he doesn’t appear to have the world’s greatest editor either), but he tells his story clearly and efficiently. One of my favorite things to learn about in books like this are the little details: the way the bathrooms worked at Base Camp, what people ate, how the cold affected everything. It’s also fascinating and kind of terrible to learn how a person can spend thousands of dollars and years of training only to fail at the last moment. One of his teammates didn’t make the summit because he twisted his ankle (getting chased by a damn yak) early on in the expedition. Lots of people succumbed to colds or gastrointestinal distress (see: the state of the bathrooms and the available food). Bear himself almost didn’t get to go due to a chest infection, and a typhoon that wouldn’t clear out.

Like I said, the writing isn’t spectacular, and Bear spends a lot of time talking about God and faith, which I personally could have done without. But the story of his time on the mountain, and of the climb itself is definitely worth the read.