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Dead Lucky |
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| Book: Hardcover | 9.25 x 6.25in | 336 pages | ISBN 9781585426461 | 15 May 2008 | Tarcher | Adult |
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You may recall the riveting Emmy-nominated Dateline documentary about Lincoln Hall, the 50-year-old veteran mountain climber who miraculously survived a night out in the open without oxygen in Mt. Everest's “death zone” after being left for dead by members of his expedition.
Hall's survival made headlines around the world, but aside from an exclusive interview with Dateline and the Today Show, Hall has remained quiet about his experience. Now, for the first time, Lincoln shares his own account of what happened during those twilight hours in the “death zone” and the events that preceded and followed that fateful night in DEAD LUCKY: Life After Death on Mount Everest.
Lincoln Hall likes to say that on the evening of May 25, 2006 he died on Everest. Indeed, Hall attempted to climb the mountain during a deadly season in which eleven people perished. And Hall, in fact, was pronounced dead, after collapsing from cerebral oedema (also known as “altitude sickness”) shortly after reaching the summit. Two sherpas spent hours trying to revive him but, as darkness fell, the expedition's leader ordered via radio that the sherpas should descend in order to save themselves. Hall was pronounced dead and the news of his death traveled rapidly from mountaineering websites to news media around the world, and ultimately to Hall's wife and two sons back in Australia. Early the next morning, an American guide climbing with two clients and a Sherpa was startled to find Hall sitting cross-legged on a sharp crest of the summit ridge just staring at them.
Not only is Hall's story amazing, his writing is too. A bestseller in Australia, Dead Lucky has been called “gripping” (The Sun Herald), “compelling” (The Sunday Telegraph), “vivid…incredible, educational, spiritual, and entertaining” (Independent Weekly), and “inspirational” (Outdoor Australia Magazine). As a sign of its caliber, the Australian edition of Dead Lucky was awarded a Special Jury Mention at the Banff Mountain Book Festival in November 07.
“Suddenly—after I don’t know how many hours—I awoke with a feeling of great fear. In one sense, nothing was different; I was still sitting cross-legged on a ridge-top high in the sky. Disoriented, I stretched out a gloved hand. I felt nothing. I removed the thick insulated gauntlet, and with my bare hand I scooped up a granular substance. It flowed through my fingers, but there were no tactile messages for my mind to decode. Then I realized that my fingers were frozen and that what I was handling was snow. I tried to feel my toes, but they were completely numb. Frostbite had struck, and the full force of the truth struck me at that moment: I was exhausted, frostbitten, and alone on the summit ridge of Everest. I had begun the decline, which would finish with me freezing to death.”
“In May 2006 on Mt. Everest, veteran climber Hall was left for dead because, to his fellow climbers, he appeared to have died. But the following morning, members of another expedition found him, sitting on a rock and very much alive. Hall’s story made headlines around the world—not too many dead men walk down off the tallest mountain in the world—and now Hall, the author of seven previous climbing-themed books, tells us the full story. It is a remarkable account. Hall’s ordeal is the stuff of nightmares: collapsing from altitude sickness, slipping into unconsciousness, waking up all alone at the top of the world, left behind as though he were a corpse. As a storyteller, Hall has a tough job: to convey to the reader what was going on inside his head as he slipped in and out of hallucination until the line between fantasy and reality was so blurred as to be nonexistent. He does this with a grace and sense of drama that befit a novel: we feel we’re there with him, seeing and hearing things that can’t possibly be real. There have been a great many Everest-themed books lately, but this one stands alone, the first-person account of a climber’s journey into, and back out of, death itself.”
--Booklist (starred review)
“A gripping, almost unbelievable story of survival.”
—The Sun- Herald
“A compelling story that explores the outer reaches of human strength, endurance and endeavour.”
—The Sunday Telegraph
“A powerful account.”
—Illawarra Mercury
“An incredible, educational spiritual and entertaining book.”
—Independent Weekly
“An inspirational tale.”
—Outdoor Australia magazine
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