Donated for bookcrossing by a Freecycle.com member. Thanks, careerswifie!

This book tells the amazing true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates fight for survival after a dreadful accident when descending from Siula Grande, a 21,000ft peak in the Peruvian Andes. Even though you know the eventual outcome of the book, I found Joe's narrative to be totally gripping as he and Simon found themselves in more and more desperate situations. They both overcame the obstacles encoutered on this harrowing descent by displaying an amazing will to live.

It's an uplifting, exciting and moving story of the stubborness of the human spirit to go on even when the body is saying 'enough'. The story is told in a candid and realistic way by both Simpson and Yates. How both reacted to incredibly harrowing circumstances and how they dealt with near impossible choices is astonishing. This is not a romanticised version of events - both men ran a full gamut of emotions as they made decisions which they knew could mean the difference between life and death.

After a week of heavy snow further north in Inverness, we were suprised there was so little snow on the hills around Aberfeldy.

We didn't hit the snow on Schiehallion until we'd climbed a few hundred metres or so.

The temperatures were not quite so low as forecast, but it was still cold in the icy wind.

Near the summit at 1083m (3547ft).

It was pretty difficult to actually release this book on the summit, due to the snow and a lack of stones to place on it to stop it blowing away!

This is me in disguise -- hiding behind my balaclava. It was cold. I didn't care what I looked like. I wasn't chancing frostbite.

I hope the book is picked up today by one of the hillwalkers we saw going up as we started descending. I'd hate to think of the poor book left out in the snow; it could get covered by snowdrifts and not seen for several months!

RELEASE NOTES:

Left under a rock on the summit of the mountain this afternoon. I spent 10 minutes wandering around the summit, hitting every stone and rock to see if any were lose to lift to place on top of the book. I eventually found 2 very small stones.

If you are new to BookCrossing and find this book and this site; welcome! Enjoy the site, the book and hopefully the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join BookCrossing (doesn't cost anything to join!) and if you do, please feel free to send me a Private Message, by clicking on the name “swan-scot”, to ask for help with anything.

Part of my Books on Bens project, see my bookshelf