The tale of Dr. Weathers's miraculous awakening from a deep hydrothermic coma was widely reported. But the hidden story of what led the pathologist to Everest in the first place, and his painful recovery after his dramatic rescue, has not been told until now.

Brilliant and gregarious, Weathers discovered in his thirties that mountain climbing helped him cope with the black dog of depression. But his self-prescribed therapy came at a steep cost: estrangement from his wife, Peach, and their two children. By the time he left for Everest, his home life had all but disintegrated.

Yet when he was reported dead after lying exposed on the mountain for eighteen hours in subzero weather, it was Peach who orchestrated the daring rescue that brought her husband home. Only then, facing months of surgery and the loss of his hands, did Beck Weathers also begin