Within Reach : My Everest Story

by Pfetzer, Mark; Galvin, Jack

• ISBN13: 9780141304977
• ISBN10: 0141304979
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Puffin

Summary

May 10, 1996. Sixteen-year-old Mark Pfetzer huddles in his tent at 26,000 feet, waiting for his turn to attempt Everest's summit. As a fierce storm descends on the camp, a frightening realisation dawns on Mark and his colleagues: many of the climbers who summitted that afternoon have not yet returned. By morning, the storm has claimed eight lives - and Mark's long-dreamed-of summit day has become one of the bleakest days in mountaineering history. This is Mark's fascinating first-person account of his Everest experience, in which he takes us past the ever-shifting Khumbu Icefall, over three-hundred-foot crevasses, and up to the high-altitude "Death Zone." His story is a dazzling saga of willpower and achievement, and a celebration of the strength that guides men and women through impossibly daring dreams.

Table of Contents

Mark's Mountains	ix
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Prologue Within Reach	3	(5)
Getting Started	8	(8)
Finding a Way	16	(6)
To Nepal	22	(13)
Bigger Ideas	35	(4)
High Altitude	39	(14)
Getting Physical	53	(7)
Ecuador: Success and Failure	60	(10)
Argentina	70	(13)
The North Side	83	(19)
Everest '95	102	(18)
My Mother's Necklace	120	(12)
To Base Camp with Cameras	132	(11)
Everest '96	143	(16)
The Storm	159	(18)
The Guide	177	(11)
Cho Oyu	188	(19)
The Decision	207	(8)
Epilogue	215	(2)
Cast of Characters	217	(6)
Glossary	223