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To Live
Fighting for life on the killer mountain
- Hardback
- ISBN: 9781839810176160 pages
- Author
- Elisabeth Revol
- Publication date
- 1 Oct 2020
'A biased choice, maybe, but the story was so compelling that I sometimes had to force myself to stop translating and take a break – I just wanted to turn the page even though I knew the tragic outcome ... 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.' – Natalie Berry, UKClimbing.com
On 25 January 2018, Élisabeth 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 8,126 metres. Élisabeth and Tomek had completed only the second winter ascent of the mountain, and Élisabeth 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, Élisabeth 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 Élisabeth Revol’s poignant tribute to her friend and climbing partner.
Also available as an ebook:
French climber Élisabeth 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 Écrins massif. She honed her alpine skills as a member of the FFCAM (Fédération Française 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, Élisabeth 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 Minařík on an expedition to Annapurna in 2009, she spent some time focusing on adventure racing before returning to mountaineering. In winter 2015, Élisabeth and Tomasz (Tomek) Mackiewicz reached an altitude of 7,800 metres on Nanga Parbat before being forced to descend. In May 2017, Élisabeth 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 Élisabeth 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
- Subtitle: Fighting for life on the killer mountain
- Author: Élisabeth Revol (translated by Natalie Berry)
- Imprint: Vertebrate Publishing
- ISBN: 978-1-83981-017-6
- Rights: World (English language)
- Publication date: 1 October 2020
- Edition: First
- Size: 234mm x 156mm
- Extent: 160 pages, with one 8pp colour plate
- Cover: Hardback
- Weight: 500g
- Retail price: £24
Also available as an ebook:
- Imprint: Vertebrate Digital
- ISBN: 978-1-83981-018-3
- Publication Date: 1 October 2020
- Price: £14.95
Revol draws the reader into her struggle for survival. Into her inner conflict, from which there is no escape … ‘To Live’ is an authentic book, but also a merciless one. Mercilessly sad. Mercilessly honest. Mercilessly gripping. I can only recommend you: have an additional woollen blanket ready while you read. – Stefan Nestler, Adventure Mountain
To Live gains so much of its strength from the almost obsessive focus on the writer's direct experience; to ask it to become more documentary would be to dilute its impact as the literary triumph it is. – Neil Reid, Mountaineering Scotland
'To say that ‘To Live’ is riveting would be an understatement; but it is also a deeply introspective and personal look into the lives of two very independent high altitude climbers.' – Mike Nash, Cloudburst
'The constant dance between Revol's internal dialogue and external movement on Nanga Parbat makes To Live a powerful read. There's a raw honesty to the flurry of emotion she details alongside her pragmatic thoughts and actions. Revol's writing is urgent and immediate yet also fluid and descriptive.' – Emily Hopcian, Alpinist
'... pretty quickly and I soon became totally engrossed in the story (honestly, I couldn’t put the book down). It was read within a day, which as I’m a fairly slow reader was good going for me. It needs to be a pretty intense book for me to not lose interest part way through and, quite simply, I couldn’t get enough of this. It has left me wanting more ‘stories’ like it from more pioneering women.' – Hannah Outside
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