Resources Developed
■ Thinking beyond yourself (of loved ones)
■ Thinking positively
■ Being optimistic
■ Looking forward
■ Being hopeful
■ Becoming action-oriented
■ Maintaining humorOutcomes Offered
■ Knowing that it isn’t the event but the way we handle the event
■ Accepting that thoughts can determine feelings
■ Discovering that attitude can determine outcome
■ Maintaining a sense of humor
■ Possessing skills to manage trauma
I have a great love of mountains and high-mountain trekking. Whenever I can, I visit places like
the Himalayas. Because I love mountains so much I have also read a lot about them and am fascinated
by stories of climbers who pushed themselves beyond what you might think humans are capable of
experiencing. Of the many stories of climbers who have battled against seemingly intolerable odds,
there is one that touches me very deeply and reminds me very clearly of some of those things that
help people get through the really tough times in life.
Dr. Beck Weathers was a specialist, a pathologist, who fulfilled a lifelong dream of climbing to
the summit of Mt. Everest on May 10, 1996. Unfortunately, it was a tragic day in the history of Ever-
est. A blizzard swept down on the mountain and within a few days fifteen people had died. Beck was
thought to be one of them—in fact, about four times he was thought to be one of them.
Tr ying to get down, Beck, with a few other climbers, got lost; their oxygen—which is neces-
sary to survive at those altitudes—had run out, they couldn’t see in the storm and the darkness, they
had no tents or sleeping bags, and they didn’t know which way to go. When he took off a glove to
warm his hand inside his jacket, the glove blew away, his hand snap-froze, he couldn’t do up his jacket,
and his whole body started to freeze in the howling wind. He passed out. Other climbers who came
to the rescue of those in trouble couldn’t find him and doubted there was any way that he could have
survived the night on the mountain without a sleeping bag and tent. This was the first time he was
written off as dead.
The next morning rescuers found Beck, partly buried in the snow. A doctor, among the rescuers,
scraped ice off Beck’s face to recognize him, checked his vital signs for life, and pronounced that he
was so near death that he was beyond help. For a second time he was written off.
That afternoon, miraculously, Beck regained consciousness, later saying that he had a mental
vision of his family, of the people he loved, and that it inspired him to get going. With one arm frozen
and only able to see a short distance in front of him, he staggered across the mountain face, again
miraculously, into Camp IV. He was given oxygen and hot water bottles, and wrapped in two sleep-
ing bags in a tent. For a third time, nobody expected him to survive through the night. Even if he
did, he wouldn’t have the strength to face all the hazards of getting down the mountain.
176 Healing Stories, Teaching Stories