10 Incredible Details Surrounding Beck Weathers, Who Survived Mount Everest

6 /10 Then Came The Storm

As if being partially blind on the peak of the highest mountain in the world wasn’t enough, there came the blizzard.

Cold, numb, disoriented, confused, and short on natural and supplemental oxygen, weathers and other climbers couldn’t find camp IV and had to endure being open and vulnerable to the storm until help finally came. 

Weathers, who was nowhere to be found in the night, later resurfaced but not for long as his colleagues watched in horror as the wind toppled him over, burying him under the vortex, his hands and face exposed to the blizzard.

5 /10 Left To Die

Fearing that Weathers was already dead, the rescue team left for camp IV with the other climbers, leaving Weathers and another client, Yasuko Namba, behind. Weathers was eventually able to wake up and found his way back to Camp IV. 

His colleagues reported that his skin looked like porcelain. Not expecting him to survive it to the following day, they tried to make his night in his tent comfortable enough.

The next day, Weathers was alive to the surprise of fellow climbers and medical experts alike and was evacuated by helicopter.

4 /10 The Price He Paid

Suffering severe frostbite and hypothermia eventually led to losing part of his nose and feet, all fingers of his left, and an amputation of his right arm.

This was the small price Weathers had to pay for his time climbing the Summit of Everest. But looking on the bright side of things, he realized his dreams of climbing Mount Everest and made history for it.

One may call this feat a price-worthy achievement and deserving of the sacrifices made.

3 /10 Liberation At Last

Irrespective of Weathers’ Everest ordeal, he described his aftermath feeling as “liberated.”

According to him, he no longer seeks to define himself externally through goals and achievements, and for the first time in his life, he has peace.

Not only that, but he also feels comfortable in his skin for the first time. Although he lost some parts of his body, he regained his mental freedom, and for so many like Weathers, this is all that matters.

2 /10 Weathers' Ordeal In Media

One of the few ways to communicate an ordeal to the public is by making a movie based on actual life events or writing a book about it.

You’re in luck because both forms of publication were made off Weathers and the Mount Everest disaster of 1996.

In 1997, Richard Jenkins portrayed the role of Weathers in the film Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, and Josh Brolin portrayed the same in the 2015 film Everest.

1 /10 25 Years Post Everest

In 2000, Weathers published his book, Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest. It contains his experience on Everest, his life before and after that.

Following his near-death experience on that day, Weathers (now 74) delivers motivational speeches across many cities and still practices as a pathologist at Medical City Dallas Hospital.

Weathers was also able to salvage his marriage to Peaches which was on the brink of dissolution. They take pleasure in telling how they strived to make it work. 

He suffered frostbites, amputation, an almost-ended marriage, and even had a near-death experience.

Still, Beck Weathers lives a happy life today, is a sensational figure for many, and a role model for others. It proves to show that life is only what you choose to make out of it.