7/24/20
One of the best books I read this year was *No Shortcuts to the Top*.
This is an autobiography of Edmund Viesturs, wherein he documents his 16-year journey
summitting all 14 of the world’s eight-thousander mountain peaks (more than 8,000
meters above sea level),
and his strategies to manage risk in extreme environments.
In one scene, while describing the deaths of a couple of his friends, Scott Fischer
and Rob Hall, who made the grave mistake of reaching the summit of Everest in the
evening, Ed warned,
*“Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.”*
This lesson comes through most forcefully when Ed recounts how he once
attempted to reach the summit at Everest but backed out just 300 feet from the top
because it just didn’t feel right.
He noticed a change in the weather.
Conditions were ripe for a potential avalanche. He realized that if the team pressed on to the top of the mountain, they wouldn’t have time to make it down.
So, he and his team turned around and went back to the base.
They lived to scale Everest another day.
This too shall pass,
Lets live today to scale our peaks another day,
Stay safe and stay blessed forever.