Beyond Possible: One Man, Fourteen Peaks, and the Mountaineering Achievement of a Lifetime

by Nims Purja

Overview

Experience the riveting tale of how Nimsdai Purja summited all 8000m “Death Zone” peaks in less than seven months.

Adopt the extraordinary mindset behind what it takes to go miles beyond your comfort zone and achieve what you thought impossible.

Embark on a journey past your limits in this spellbinding memoir. In this new book for National Geographic, Nimdai Purja tells the story of his life before his epic achievement of leading the team that scaled K2 in winter. He reveals how leadership, a willingness to learn, integrity and collaboration are essential qualities behind the world's greatest mountaineering feats.

The first man ever to summit all 8000m 'Death Zone' peaks in less than 7 months (the previous record was 7 years), Purja reveals the man behind the climbs—and how his early life in Nepal and Special Forces training made him the person to go beyond possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426222535
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Nims Purja is a climber and mountaineer. During his 16-year military career, he spent six years in the elite Ghurka regiment, and 10 years with the UK Special Forces (SBS). He holds an ever-growing list of climbing records, including the summitting of all 14 peaks over 8,000m in altitude within a period of six months and six days with the aid of bottle oxygen. In 2021, he and a team of nine Nepalese climbers became the first people to make a winter summit of K2.

Table of Contents

Contents
1 Death or Glory2 Hope Is God3 Better to Die Than to Be a Coward4 The Unrelenting Pursuit of Excellence5 Into the Death Zone6 Swimming to the Moon7 The Mission8 The Highest Stakes9 Respect Is Earned…10 The Normality of the Extreme11 Rescue!12 Into the Dark13 In Times of Chaos14 Summit Fever15 The Politics of a Mountain16 Quitting’s Not in the Blood17 Through the Storm18 The Savage Mountain19 A Mountain Mind20 The People’s Project21 Epic Afterword

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/25/2021

Nepalese climber Purja debuts with a propulsive account of successfully climbing the “Earth’s fourteen Death Zone peaks” in record-breaking time. In 2018, after years of serving as a Gurkha soldier in the British military, he embarked on a “wild effort” to reach the pinnacles of the world’s 14 tallest mountains in fewer than seven months, an attempt that would “shatter” the previous world record of seven years. With the summits of each rising above 8,000 meters, Purja writes, “the air is so lacking in oxygen that human bodies and brains wither and fail.” His exhilarating narrative captures the physical and mental toll he experienced while careening down the sides of mountains and ascending lethally steep slopes in “brutal, whiteout conditions.” In addition to recounting topping Everest in Nepal and K2 in Pakistan, Purja writes memorably about his time in the Nepalese regiment of the British Armed Forces, reflecting fondly on a career that both sharpened his skills as a climber—giving him “access to a variety of highly specialized courses”—and deepened the pride he felt around his culture, an aspect of mountaineering that has often gone overlooked. This is a fascinating and inspiring look at a life lived on the edge. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly