Sharon Wood - Rising: Becoming the First Canadian Woman to Summit Everest, A Memoir

Rising

Sharon Wood

Rising

Becoming the First Canadian Woman to Summit Everest, A Memoir

Copyright 2019 Sharon Wood

First editions published simultaneously in 2019 in Canada by Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. and in the United States of America by Mountaineers Books.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, .

Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.

P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, BC , V0N 2H0

www.douglas-mcintyre.com

All Everest Light expedition photographs, with or without credits, were taken by expedition members with cameras provided by Leica.

Quote on : From LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by M. D. Herter Norton. Copyright 1934, 1954 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., renewed 1962, 1982 by M. D. Herter Norton. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Part 1 quote on : adapted from Barbara La Fontaine. Scared of Bears and Scared of Being Scared, Sports Illustrated, July 18, 1966, 51.

Part 2 quote on : Excerpt from KAFKA ON THE SHORE by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel, translation copyright 2005 by Haruki Murakami. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Copyright 2005 by Haruki Murakami. Reprinted by permission of ICM Partners.

Edited by Lucy Kenward

Dust Jacket design by Anna Comfort OKeeffe and Carleton Wilson

Text design by Carleton Wilson

Printed and bound in Canada

Printed on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council

Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Lan dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de lart dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

We also gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Government of Canada and from the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Rising : becoming the first Canadian woman to summit Everest : a memoir / Sharon Wood.

Names: Wood, Sharon A., 1957- author.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190114525 | Canadiana (ebook) 2019011455X | ISBN 9781771622257

(hardcover) | ISBN 9781771622264 ( HTML )

Subjects: LCSH: Wood, Sharon A., 1957- | LCSH: Women mountaineersCanadaBiography. | LCSH: MountaineersCanadaBiography. | LCSH: MountaineeringEverest, Mount (China and Nepal) | LCSH: Everest, Mount (China and Nepal)

Classification: LCC GV199.92.W66 A3 2019 | DDC 796.522092dc23

For my boys.

I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Throughout the process of writing this book I have been asked, Why now, after all this time? Becoming the first North American woman to summit Mount Everest catapulted me into an accidental career as an inspirational speaker for three decades. Although my climbing has had an impact on who I am, I never expected this one climb to permeate my life to the extent it has. Not a day has gone by without some reference to Everest, whether from a friend or a stranger; from a journalist, a student or a speakers bureau; or from an aspiring mountaineer or an autograph hound. I have been surprised and sometimes dismayed to discover Everest is not going away.

Everest has opened doors for me and expanded my world. But at times, Everest has felt like an overbearing friend. It has often preceded me, elbowed its way into rooms, sashayed across floors, cut swaths through conversations and embarrassed me. Outside of my work as an inspirational speaker, I have been quiet about this particular mountain. Some friends have accused me of being coy when I do not let Everest speak for me, but this is how it is: complicated.

When people in my audiences asked when I was going to write a book, I would tell them: When Im old and wise enough. And I would tell myself: never. However, much has changed. Access to Mount Everest has increased exponentially. Still, despite the mountain having been desecrated by commercialism, reality TV , garbage, and sometimes, questionable motives, a fascination with this icon of human achievement has endured. Ive had more than thirty years to ponder why some folks cant hear enough about it. Climbing Everest reveals the best and the worst of the human condition. The story I have told to over a thousand audiences conveys the former: a story of exceptional teamwork and the impact it has had on my life.

My realization that Everest was going to remain both a part of my life and the public consciousness coincided with my children leaving home and resuming my original career as an alpine guide. Returning to my guiding work was a relief and a comfort. I realized how much I love to show others the elegance of moving over rock, snow and ice. More fulfilling than teaching specific skills, however, is helping people find themselves in the mountains. By showing others, I reminded myself that the mountains are a powerful teacher. All these factors inspired me to delve deeper into the story I usually tell audiences in less than an hour.

As overbearing friends can be, Everest wanted this book to be about it. But the mountain merely serves as a stage and a timeline for the real story. I did not know this until now. I had to write this story to live the questions and discover that the most important thing Everest has taught me is the value of relationships: my relationship with myself, with some remarkable people and with the world around me.

I have had to answer for my motives many times during this writing process. Who am I to talk about myself? I had considered this indulgence an unwholesome luxury until I realized one of the reasons I read memoir is to know I am not alone.

I have taken advantage of the liberal rules for non-fiction narrative to inhabit the young woman I was then, when the events were newborn, and I, less aware. I have recreated scenes and conversations to convey the events, the character of myself, my teammates and friends, and our relationships, to the best of my recollection. This story has been with me long enough to make me wonder whether I had it straight, especially after retelling it for so long. To this end, I asked a few teammates to read the manuscript to make sure events lined up with the facts.