Summary of Silvia Vasquez-Lavado's In the Shadow of the Mountain

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The climb up Lhotse was terrifying, but I was able to get over it and focus on the ropes. They turned into velvet ropes that led me toward a mysterious, exclusive nightclub.

#2 I have learned to make do with the jumar, which is an extension of me. I respect the jumar and bow to it every time I feel its steel teeth bite down on rope.

#3 At elevations like this, time expands and contracts. We're higher than most birds will ever fly. I wonder if birds get obsessed with height like we do.

#4 Lhotse is the final obstacle before Camp 3, where our oxygen tanks are waiting. Above 24,000 feet, the climb is a race against diminishing oxygen. This high, we rest but we don’t recover. We are deteriorating.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669355137

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Silvia Vasquez-Lavado's In the Shadow of the Mountain

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The climb up Lhotse was terrifying, but I was able to get over it and focus on the ropes. They turned into velvet ropes that led me toward a mysterious, exclusive nightclub.

#2

I have learned to make do with the jumar, which is an extension of me. I respect the jumar and bow to it every time I feel its steel teeth bite down on rope.

#3

At elevations like this, time expands and contracts. We're higher than most birds will ever fly. I wonder if birds get obsessed with height like we do.

#4

Lhotse is the final obstacle before Camp 3, where our oxygen tanks are waiting. Above 24,000 feet, the climb is a race against diminishing oxygen. This high, we rest but we don’t recover. We are deteriorating.

#5

The wind began to howl. Ice began to fall. The sun did not open up as predicted, and thick cloud caps descended on Lhotse. visibility plummeted.

#6

I can hear my breath against the buff covering my neck and chin. Something in my mask isn’t clicking. I stop and pull my backpack off to check, but Lydia shouts at me to keep moving.

#7

I understand that not only has death always been on the table, but maybe that’s why I’m here. I’m here to let the mountain do for me what I can’t do for myself.

#8

I teetered on the edge of the traverse. I clicked into the final rope, completed the traverse, and then dropped to all fours and crawled toward the tents. I found my tent and flicked my oxygen tank out. I couldn’t stop shivering.

#9

I had drafted a will before I left San Francisco, a formality my climber friends recommended. But the will didn’t seem real. It was like a half-assed precautionary measure. I had been trying to save myself from myself for years.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

My mornings were spent with my mother and her friend J, sipping coffee and chatting. I enjoyed soaking in the sun streaming through the window of the inner courtyard next to the