On 25 January 2018, Elisabeth Revol and her climbing partner Tomasz Mackiewicz summited Nanga Parbat, the killer mountain. Situated in the Karakoram, the world's ninth-highest peak is an immense ice-armoured pyramid of rock rising to an altitude of 8,125 metres. Elisabeth and Tomek had completed only the second winter ascent of the mountain, and Elisabeth had become the first woman to summit Nanga Parbat in winter. But their euphoria was short-lived. As soon as they reached the top, their adventure turned into a nightmare as Tomek was struck by blindness.
In her own words, Elisabeth tells the story of this tragedy and the extraordinary rescue operation that resounded across the globe as fellow climbers flew in from K2 to help the stricken pair. She confronts her memories, her terror, her immense pain and the heartbreak of having survived, alone. To Live is Elisabeth Revol's poignant tribute to her friend and climbing partner.
French climber Elisabeth Revol holds an impressive list of achievements in the world of mountaineering and adventure. A former gymnast, she took up climbing as a teenager in her local range, the Ecrins massif. She honed her alpine skills as a member of the FFCAM (Federation Francaise des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne) and combined mountaineering with a career as a PE teacher. She climbed in the Alps and opened new routes in the Bolivian Andes before discovering a love for high-altitude climbing in the Karakoram and Himalaya. In 2008, Elisabeth became the first woman to link three 8,000-metre summits when she soloed Broad Peak, Gasherbum I and Gasherbrum II in sixteen days, without supplementary oxygen. After the death of her climbing partner Martin Minarik on an expedition to Annapurna in 2009, she spent some time focusing on adventure racing before returning to mountaineering. In winter 2015, Elisabeth and Tomasz (Tomek) Mackiewicz reached an altitude of 7,800 metres on Nanga Parbat before being forced to descend. In May 2017, Elisabeth completed a solo ascent of Lhotse without oxygen. She returned to Nanga Parbat that winter with Tomek to make her fourth attempt on the mountain and Tomek's seventh. They reached the summit on 25 January 2018, but tragedy struck when Tomek died on the descent and Elisabeth was rescued suffering from frostbite. To Live, her personal account of these events, was first published in French as Vivre in 2019. Following a period of recovery, she continued to climb, summiting Everest and Lhotse on successive days in May 2019, and Manaslu in September 2019.
Title: To Live: Fighting for life on the killer mountain
Author: Elisabeth Revol
ISBN: 9781839810176
Binding:
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing Ltd
Publication Date: 2020-10-01
Number of Pages: 160
Weight: 0.4401 kg
'First-person accounts of Himalayan ascents by women are few and far between, and To Live is a worthy addition to any mountain literature collection.' - UKClimbing.com
