“Unless an avalanche, a rock, or old age comes for me first, I’ll keep climbing mountains, in love with that naked feeling of lightness. I’ll keep on moving until my body’s resources are spent and it can’t keep up with my mind anymore. I’m convinced that the best time is always now, and the best memory is always tomorrow.”
I have followed Kilian’s accomplishments over many years. After “Summits of my life”, this is the second book of his that I’ve read. From the title and subtitle of the book I assumed that in the book he would mainly talk about his Everest expeditions, and that does seem to be one of the recurring topics. However, he once again touches on his whole life - growing up in the Catalan mountains, competing in sky and trail races from a very early age, and coming to fame despite being an introvert and wanting to remain anonymous. He touches on living in Chamonix and finally moving to Norway. He mentions some of the races he’s competed in, some mountains he’s climbed and some of the people he’s met.
The book was first published in Spanish in 2018. It could be described as a mixture of scraps and thoughts about different races and mountains and people Kilian has met throughout his life. He does touch on his different Everest expeditions. The stories and thoughts seem a bit all over the place, and many stories felt unfinished. I did very much enjoy reading Kilian’s stories and thoughts. Many seem like quotes one would like to write down and maybe put on the fridge to read daily. But overall the reading experience did not feel like a book, but more like reading some blog posts of his. I very much appreciated Kilian touching on climate change, a topic dear to his heart. He does acknowledge that for the mountains he loves so much, it would’ve been better if he had never flown there and seen them in person. Finally, I bought the hardcover version by HarperOne and must say I expected better quality. The hard cover is rather on the cheap side with poor quality of the pages, it seems like a paperback with a more stable cover. Overall, I still enjoyed reading this book and getting some insight into Kilian’s life and his more recent achievements, but it’s not a literary masterpiece by any means.
