Beyond the Mountain

I imagine some people have been waiting quite a while for this book from today’s supreme alpine-style climber, Steve House. You can’t help but get gripped and tense as he describes his technical ascents on K7, the Slovak Direct Route on Denali’s south face and the southeast face of Nanga Parbat known as the Rupal Face. Especially dicey have been his solo ascents where the margin for error was razor thin to non-existent.

Interestingly, House claims he always feels "empty" after gaining his objective. If so, he pays a heavy price for that emptiness because he is very frank that his climbing was always way more important than his marriage(his first wife divorced him). On the other hand, his description of the intense bond he formed on climbs with two of his partners verges on homoerotic. His wife simply couldn't compete with partners with whom he'd stared death in the face.

Somewhere along the line, House acquired superb writing skills because he really knows how to weave a suspenseful narrative. I’m not sure I always appreciated the literary framework he used of moving back and forth in time while describing a single climb. For example, he might start a particular chapter describing the final hours of an ascent, then skip back to an airport scene when he first arrived into the country. I would have preferred an unbroken chronology, but to each his own. The bottom line is, this is a great read.

Loved it. Steve House is an outstanding writer. He compellingly conveys the intensity of each climb and the impact of his mountaineering life on his life and relationships. I highly recommend it.