In the Shadow of the Mountain Quotes

“I try to remind myself that not every challenge is one we’re totally prepared for. That that too is an important lesson, and even if we don’t make it, the girls will be galvanized by their own strength. That will be enough, I tell myself. But secretly I want more. I want us to make it. I want it all. We can do this—that’s the message I want to inject. We can do anything. Especially women like us—built on the bones of survival. That is what I really want them to know.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“I’ve been asking myself if I’m strong enough to keep up, to make it to the top, but maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe I should be asking if I’m soft enough to listen. To yield. To trust something deep inside, something in my bloodline, my heritage, that undercuts logic and strength.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain

“You'll have an awful day, if not many, on this mountain,' he said. 'You'll want to quit; you'll question why you're here. But when that happens, know that it's just an awful day and that everything will be different when you wake up the next morning. Everything changes when you just keep going.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Even thought I rarely believed it myself, whenever I spoke it aloud, the dream grew. No matter how absurd it sounded, how impossible it seemed, dreaming got me closer to executing.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Even while recuperating, we have to keep active. If you don't move at all, you're more likely to get sick. Continuous motion is the best way to manipulate our bodies into believing that we can fully operate with limited oxygen.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“As I stood looking out at the view, the answer was so clear I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. Everest was not about me. I wasn't supposed to be doing it alone. I wasn't supposed to be scaling mountains and staking my flag at their peaks like some modern-day conquistadora. It was about what I had to offer, what I had to give to a community--to women, to girls, like me. I had to keep my promise to climb Everest, but I was supposed to bring others with me. Other women like me. Survivors. That had been the message all along.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“For Sherpas here, the land is everything. Losing two of our most brute, bold men within the first week reminds me that Everest is a spirit to be honored, not a peak to conquer.

I've been asking myself if I'm strong enough to keep up, to make it to the top, but maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe I should be asking if I'm soft enough to listen. To yield. To trust something deep inside, something in my bloodline, my heritage, that undercuts logic and strength.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“The host always said: 'Nothing you do is small. Everything begins from there.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“We protect us.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Pride was the opposite of shame.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Immigrants were also often Type T. You take a huge risk that alters the course of your life and the generations that come after. Whether you're running away or toward something, it takes cojones to leave your home and start from scratch.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“I was bred to consider my own station in life, to blaze forward, to do the best, be the best, but the way Jimena and Lucy use the word build is communal. Building is talking and sharing experiences. It's gaining trust. Using the ideas and knowledge of others as building blocks to construct something that can be shared and serve all.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Getting up each day to do nothing but walk has been a special kind of prayer.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Being soft is dangerous, too dangerous for some of us. But the small stone room cradles us, and the girls sit at peace, eyes closed, in the dark. It’s only my mind, I realize, that’s trying to run, darting a million miles an hour, looking for a way out.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“Awe is the gateway drug to healing trauma through nature.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“the telling was just the beginning. Healing is circuitous. There are so many roadblocks, stops and starts.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

“I can only laugh at how arrogant I was that first time around. I didn’t know then how much pain there is in healing. How much shit and grime.”
― Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage