A life of adventures

"Tenuously standing thousands of feet above Seattle forced me to release control. Not to lose it, but to release it to a mountain that would always be bigger and fiercer than me. With control out of the way that morning, I felt its counterbalance: freedom."

Lisa Thompson didn't grow up in the mountains. Instead, in her home state of Illinois, she spent her days exploring woods and cornfields. The first person in her family to go to college, she became an engineer and moved to Seattle. It is there that she started climbing mountains, ultimately climbing Mount Everest, completing the seven summits and being the second American woman to summit K2. In this book, she shares how she got drawn to climbing mountains.

I really enjoyed Lisa's life story, especially the 8000m peaks she summited and her struggle with self worth and self doubt, as well as her fight with cancer. Her writing is quite captivating. I wish she'd also mention her other mountaineering feats in the book, as it mostly covers the pacific northwest, Manaslu, Everest and K2. She never really even mentions completing the seven summits. Overall, this a fascinating book for those who enjoy reading about mountaineering.