Book info

• Title Facing Up
• Author Bear Grylls
• Year 2000
• Genre Memoir

At the age of 23, a young challenger named Bear Grylls set out to defy nature's mightiest peak, Mount Everest. With the relentless drive to conquer and a heart weighed down by a past marred by a life-threatening accident, Grylls overcame the obstacles to become one of the youngest Britons to claim Everest's summit. The expedition, chronicled in Facing Up, was marked by uncompromising weather, debilitating fatigue, severe dehydration, and sudden illnesses. Yet, Grylls' determination never wavered, his spirit and humour pushing him through every obstacle in his path.

Thoughts

After reading the autobiography of Ranulph Fiennes, I realised I had another book about exploration I could dive into. This one was a bit different as it was exclusively about climbing Mount Everest, and comes at the very start of Bear Grylls’s adventuring career.

After breaking his back in a parachuting accident, Bear was inspired to attempt to achieve his dream of climbing Everest. The book details how he came to that decision, his preparation, the weeks spent acclimatising and of course, the actual climb itself.

I thought it was a great story, told well, and although you know he’s going to get to the top, it still never really seems certain until it actually happens. So much can go wrong on that mountain, I cannot understand why people put themselves through it, but so many do! Bear tries to explain it as best as possible, and you can sort of get an idea of what motivates him and others, but ultimately it’s a personal dream and one he achieved at an incredibly young age. Sort of inspiring, sort of crazy, but all interesting.

Rating: 4 / 5