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71 reviews for:
The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain's Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again
Jim Davidson
3.85 AVERAGE
71 reviews for:
The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain's Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again
Jim Davidson
3.85 AVERAGE
This exciting memoir tells about experienced climber Jim Davidson's experience on his first attempt at Everest in 2015 when an earthquake hit, killing 18 climbers and thousands of Nepalese people in the surrounding area. Then in 2017, he fights his fears and returns for another attempt.
After the struggles and terror during the earthquake, I found myself cheering Jim on in his second try at Everest. I find books about Everest totally fascinating despite my total fear of heights and out-of-shape body. I would never survive a trip myself but through the descriptions in this book I can feel the cold winds, hear the crunch of ice and snow under boots, and see the amazing vistas and bright blue glacier crevasses. I was sad for this adventure to end.
I received a free advanced reader copy of this book through NetGalley. This review is given voluntarily.
After the struggles and terror during the earthquake, I found myself cheering Jim on in his second try at Everest. I find books about Everest totally fascinating despite my total fear of heights and out-of-shape body. I would never survive a trip myself but through the descriptions in this book I can feel the cold winds, hear the crunch of ice and snow under boots, and see the amazing vistas and bright blue glacier crevasses. I was sad for this adventure to end.
I received a free advanced reader copy of this book through NetGalley. This review is given voluntarily.
I won this ARC through Goodreads. It’s a fascinating story of what it takes not only to reach the summit of Everest, but to do so after surviving a natural disaster on the mountain.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Read a NetGalley eARC
Content warning: frostbite, crevasses, heights, death, cancer, heart attack
Content warning: frostbite, crevasses, heights, death, cancer, heart attack
Climbing Mount Everest, know as Chomolungma in Nepal, is considered a great achievement for any climber. After training for years, author Jim Davidson finally has his chance at the peak. But in 2015, an earthquake hits, making an already tenuous climb that much dangerous.
Two years pass and Davidson resolves to make one more run for the summit. This autobiographical account of both climbs covers much territory, from the personal experiences of the climbs themselves, to the state of Nepal before, during, and after, and personal anecdotes about the people who touched Davidson’s life throughout his climbing career.
Moving, harrowing, but told with much reverence and humility, a great entry into the canon of Mount Everest climbing stories.
This reflective work feels more autobiographical than others that I have read. We learn all about Davidson, from his upbringing with his father who was a house painter, to how he and wife, Gloria, met, to the tragedy at Mt. Rainier, to his relationship with his fellow climbing community and the Sherpa people who guide the climbers up Everest. The pacing and unfolding of the narrative, especially the relationship aspects, works so well.
But it is also a deep reflection on grief and trauma. Humanizing the statistics around the number of people who die every season on Everest adds another layer of depth to this work. The danger is palpable, but respectfully human. And the ways Davidson speaks about works on both a prose and storytelling level. It’s humble and reverent. Plus, he has a real knack for contextualizing information that comes up as numbers rather than individual stories.
Simple in its telling with several insights that go beyond climbing, definitely recommended to someone in search of another read like Into Thin Air that’s as much about the people on Everest as it is about the mountain itself.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Jim Davidson has a unique story to tell. He not only climbed Everest; he was present on the mountain in 2015 when a 7.8 earthquake hit, taking dozens of lives. Jim, of course, did not make it to the summit on that expedition and was forced to return home.
The Next Everest covers this story and, as the title suggests, his return years later and his successful summiting of Everest. Unfortunately, the author's writing wasn't quite up to the task of what should have been a slam dunk adventure and disaster story that engaged me from start to finish. Instead, I found Davidson focused too often on the minuteae of the day to day of climbing or prepping for a climb. He also repeated himself to the point where my eyes glazed and I lost focus.
So, I am glad to have learned about an earthquake I previously knew nothing about. But it's not an entry into the mountaineering and adventuring canon I will return to.
3.5 stars
The Next Everest covers this story and, as the title suggests, his return years later and his successful summiting of Everest. Unfortunately, the author's writing wasn't quite up to the task of what should have been a slam dunk adventure and disaster story that engaged me from start to finish. Instead, I found Davidson focused too often on the minuteae of the day to day of climbing or prepping for a climb. He also repeated himself to the point where my eyes glazed and I lost focus.
So, I am glad to have learned about an earthquake I previously knew nothing about. But it's not an entry into the mountaineering and adventuring canon I will return to.
3.5 stars
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
As a reader with a lifelong fascination for Everest [ask me about my podcast ;)], I was delighted to discover this new release. It focuses on the 2015 earthquake on the mountain/in Nepal and the aftermath, as well as the author's personal journey to attempt to summit. I appreciated the author's background in geology, which brought another informative element to what is first and foremost an adventure memoir. A solid addition to the Everest canon.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Thank you Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's Press for the gifted book!
This book started slow for me, but once I was into it, I didn't want to stop listening. I was fascinated by the logistics of climbing Mount Everest, but I was also very intrigued by Jim Davidson's reflections on his climbing career and especially how he handled trying to climb Mount Everest a second time after his first attempt was thwarted by a major earthquake that caused the deadliest day in the history of Everest.
If you like adventure memoirs you MUST add this one to your list. It is so well written. You are given so many details, but you don't feel bogged down by them. And Jim's writing is reflective and clear.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced