Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks — My Life In The Death Zone

by Nimsdai Purja

‘Today I will give 100 per cent and survive’,

‘I’ll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes’.

In the face of my toughest challenge yet, I hadn’t cracked. I’d bent and flexed. I was malleable.

bravery over everything else. And there was no other way for me to live.

knowing that gloomy thinking was both destructive and contagious.

I knew I had to lose the negative internal chit-chat, and fast.

but if I started undervaluing the promises I’d made, the process would become habitual and I’d never hit my targets.

Having emotionally reset, I adapted to the situation, tweaking my schedule and moving across

My achievements hadn’t been appreciated by everyone, though. When my records were announced, a number of highly regarded mountaineers were quick to point to the fact I’d used oxygen. But fuck that: my ambitions mainly hinged on pace. I was a trailblazer and I led from the front, fixing my own lines – that was Nims-style.

The trick was to present a psychological reframing of what was set to be a painful encounter.

Whenever I attack a mountain, I attack at 100 per cent.

The American writer Mark Twain once wrote that if a person’s job was to eat a frog, then it was best to take care of business first thing in the morning. But if the work involved eating two frogs, it was best to eat the bigger one first. In other words: Get the hardest job out of the way.

So rather than thinking, praying and waiting for your next project or challenge (and not doing it), commit to serious action instead.