Everest -- The Movie

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(Spoiler Alert) My husband, daughter, grandson and I all went to see the movie "Everest" today. It is about the 1996 disastrous climbing expedition on Mount Everest. A number of things went wrong and several people died needlessly. It is a true tragedy. This movie is especially meaningful to our family because we knew one of the survivors at the time. His name is Beck Weathers and our daughter went to school with his daughter. One Friday night that year, I dropped my daughter off for a pajama party with other friends from her school. When I picked her up that Saturday morning she said, "Meg's mom came in the middle of the night and picked her up. Her Dad died on Everest." It was a shock. The thing is ... Beck Weathers was not dead, although he was seriously frost-bitten. His wife, Peach, contacted a number of government officials until Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson helped her find a helicopter pilot who was willing to take the risk of bringing Beck Weathers down the mountain. When our daughters were seniors in high school, we went to a party with Beck and Peach. By then, his nose had been rebuilt using skin from his forehead. One of his hands was a metal claw. The other hand was fused into three large fingers. However, he had become so good at using his new hands, he had no trouble using a corkscrew to open a bottle of wine ... even though I offered to open it for him. It is an amazing true story and I hope some of you will take the time to watch "Everest." The picture I am showing here is NOT of Mt. Everest. However, it is one I can see from in the wilderness area, near my home.