Above the clouds.

I have always believed that looking into the lives of other people gives one perspective. People are inherently different and have varied views about different things in life and about life itself. The hardships faced ,experiences are different paving way for different character moulding and thinking.

Humans are inherently impressionable creatures,the brain observes,learns,follows and formulates idea and thoughts and solidifies its thought processes and logic. I have always believed you can learn something from everybody. But there are some people whose lives influence and inspire you a lot. Now ,why they influence and inspire a lot more than the others is a difficult question to answer and maybe very relative.
But,these people bring about phenomenal changes in the way you think and act and re-shuffle your thought processes and perspectives of life a great deal. We become followers for some reason.

Anatoli Boukreevs life is one such example. A high altitude mountaineer who was vilified for his judgements in the 96 everest disaster and who perished the very next year trying to do a winter ascent of the Annapurna.He had climbed 11 of the 14 8000 meter peaks and was one of the most accomplished mountaineers in recent times.'Above the clouds' is a book about his life. When you look closely at his life,his profession,his character and thought process in the book,you just keep wondering whether people like this also exist? You envy sometimes wishing you could live such a life or reach those levels and had such capacities, but you know in the back of your mind that you cannot ! We are just mere mortals!

I keep wondering about the profession of high-altitude mountaineers and suddenly have a deep respect for the likes of reinhold messner,ed viesturs,Jerzy Kukuczka,george mallory,etc. .. and many more.These people have a very different attitude towards life,that is all i can say.Very different from the common masses!

In the foreword Galen Rowel writes 'unlike genius, which is a personal quality that often comes to naught,greatness implies a recognition of unusual human endeavor by the minds of others. It always comes after the fact,and all too often posthumously.Besides involving a continuum of accomplishments,greatness seems to require humility and a willingness to wait for the world to make its judgements. I dwell at length on greatness because I believe Anatoli was robbed of it during his lifetime'. After reading this book and 'The climb' about Anatoli Boukreev i also somehow have reached the same conclusion.