Book Review: HIGH EXPOSURE: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places - David Breashears and J.K

An old one:

This year in May, Indian Air force expedition lost Sqn Ldr Chaitanya, who never returned to the summit camp and my colleague from NIM (Nehru Institute Of Mountaineering) - Uttarkashi, Anupam, returned frost bitten from 8600m as his oxygen mask malfunctioned. I was following the progress of the expedition on a daily basis and even though IAF team managed to put three of the team members on the summit, the expedition was shadowed with loss of Sqn Ldr. Chaitanya and failure of the team to find him even after a prolonged search operation. I was so involved with the expedition, that it felt like a personal loss. I had either Camus or mountains to turn to. I headed to hills and did my "dealing" there and brought a copy of the "High Exposure" by David Breashers while returning back home.

"If I could be one tenth of the man that Beck Weathers was on that day, I'll be a very proud man", writes David Breashears about Beck Weathers, who after being given up for dead, not once, but thrice. He was still jovial and calm, as Breashers and Ed Viesturs, were getting him from camp 3 to 2 on Everest after the 1996 tragedy on Everest. In 1996 eleven people perished during the summit attempt at Everest. There has been a series of publications capturing the impressions of those who saw the tragedy unfold on that fateful day. "High Exposure" reveals Breashers view of the tragedy and so far is the most detached account of what happened on that day on the Everest.

David Breashers was brought up in Boulder, Colorado and discovered the love of climbing there. Growing up as a kid in 70s with a prodigious talent for climbing earned him the nick Kloberdanz kid early enough. While he honed his climbing skills in Yosemite, David was slowly unfolding his own vision of climbing. Working in Oil Fields, living in shacks, just to make enough money, such that he could keep climbing is as inspiring as it can get. David entered the Mecca of mountaineering, the Himalaya, as an assistant cameraman and realized that he had a love for both climbing as well as filming the mountains. The unique combination earned his keeping with various filming crews and he could be in Himalayas, mountaineering.

The high exposure covers a lot of space and time, from being raised by a violent short-tempered father and a caring mother, to the climbing whiz kid, an oilman, and a filmmaker to an acclaimed mountaineer. The journey from Colorado to Himalayas is written in an easy and candid manner of a mountaineer. Mountaineering is a very personal adventure, it is to see "how far can one go" having assumed that going "too far" is not universal. Moving on this edge of far and too far is what keeps mountaineers moving, the summit is a pause between these journeys.

David Breashers summited Everest for the 5th time last year at the age of 49, most recognize David from his 1996 IMAX movie on Everest. He resides in Boston, MA-U.S.A.

I resolve that...

I’ll explode in a million pieces and sparkle on the robes of Nanda Ghunti . I’ll climb up this mountain even as the mist and sweat cloud my view, as my beloved breaks down in tears. I shall keep climbing even if it breaks my back today, not till my love and I cross the last smooth stone ledge to the meadow with the silver streak. I shall not be cowed down by the dark clouds rushing down to meet us as we setup our home; I shall thrust my chest up and breathe the snarling wind.
I’ll learn to dance a waltz of passion or a thumb down thrust of a rapper with my heart and soul. I shall have the courage to look silly in the dresses that fancy me. I shall live in my country of chaos, of stray cows and honking drivers. I shall not embalm myself in antiseptic courtesy. I shall tell you that I hate you as passionately as I love you. I’ll break your bones and drink your blood, I shall be alive. I’ll wage war and I’ll wage love and passion too. Let me run till my lungs explode; jump till the trampoline rips apart on the crescendo of Rachminoff 3 . I’ll give it everything.
I resolve to drink absinthe, wander bare headed to look for Mayaa , find her and shoot myself in chest. I shall not listen to white robed saints or gurus teaching me the art of living, I shall live as a coward, as a hero and all in between. I shall cry as my people excel, as they jump, run and shoot. I shall wander on the lawns of Princeton and chuckle on Adam . I shall soar and be plundered like a kite.
Let me do those 33 steps of Jion as my master does, even if takes decades of pointless practice. Let me be pointless, let me blast your linear chains and sword into a million bits and piss over it. Let me bite you as I make love to you, hurt you with my love and hate too. Let me paint a storm in a storm in Arles; let me sing a Pavarotti for you or no one. Let me melt your clocks and grow a hornbill mustache. Let me act in the face of the plague, defy it, defeat it or be annihilated in the way.
Let the water lap my bow, break my stern, let me steer my timbers to new granite islands where woodthrush calls through the fog. The valley of Garud, where the Trishul towers like a lonely gendarme in fog and our Camerzind lies looking over the corn field.
Let me sit quietly at the Ghat in Banares as azaan calls the faithful and my shehnai’s caress is fresh on my dry lips. I’ll spit tobacco on the streets on this land, the land of my ancient civilization. I shall not moderate my hate or mellow my love. I’ll celebrate the animal as well as the human animal in me. I shall sing the songs of love and hate too. I shall experience greed, jealousy and much more. I shall fall in love many times with you and without you too. I shall not be afraid to hold hands; I shall jump into the river and cross over to islands. I’ll keep traveling and I shall keep living. I shall be human and not make a monster out of myself. I’ll not celibate or forgive you for pain you gave me. I’ll make you and me suffer till our graves, if I don’t move on. I shall not be an unperson, I shall live with cadence.
I shall know the colours of rainbow is not uniform white, a million colours makes up my sky and I shall live each one, in breadth and in depth. Like a blade of grass I shall be forever alive.

Terms:
Nanda Gunti - A Himalayan peak.
Rachminoff #3 - Piano Concerto no. 3.
Mayaa – Illusion.
Adam - Adam Smith
Jion - A Kata – Karate sequence of steps.
Pavarotti - Luciano Pavarotti
Trishul - A Himalayan peak
Ghat - River bank
Azaan - Muslim call for prayer
Shehnai - Wind Instrument see Bismillah Khan