Rising: Becoming the First North American Woman on Everest

by Sharon Wood

2019 Banff Mountain Book Competition Category Finalist in Mountain Literature

On May 20, 1986, high on Mount Everest, Sharon Wood was ready to give up. Snow plumes swirled off the summit ridge and spilled down the North Face, engulfing her. A four-hundred-foot high rock wall, the crux of the Hornbein Couloir, loomed above―impossible. Then Wood’s partner, Dwayne Congdon, handed her the end of the rope and said, “your lead.” Hours later, at the far too late hour of 9:00 p.m., Wood became the first North American woman to reach the summit, and the first woman in the world to do so via the difficult West Ridge. Their ascent of the West Ridge by a new variation, without Sherpa assistance, is an accomplishment that has never been repeated.

In Rising, Wood reflects on the seventy days she spent on the mountain and on the pivotal experiences and influences that brought her to that staggeringly beautiful and austere corner of the world. Beyond the physical hardships, she faced personal challenges as an outlier in the male bastion of Himalayan climbing. These were compounded by the vexing presence of her past mentor and lover with his new girlfriend on the American team climbing on the same side of the mountain. It didn’t help that the media pitched the two women as rivals, both vying to become the first North American woman to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world. Wood rose to all these challenges, finding camaraderie and inspiration among her teammates, particularly in the expedition cook, a strong woman whose perspectives were essential to the team’s remarkable esprit de corps, as well as with “the other woman,” her so-called American rival.

Rising is both a gripping, adrenalin-filled mountain story and a reflective memoir that reaches beyond the summit to explore a life lived in Everest’s long unexpected acclaim, outrageous expectations, and personal struggles. As Wood tells her story today, her perspective is steeped in six decades of life experience rich with adventure, change, growth, and humility. It is a tale that feels poignantly relevant―a testament to the strength of the human spirit to overcome all obstacles, whether mountain peaks, social expectations, or self-imposed barriers.

Genres: Adventure, Nonfiction, Mountaineering, Travel, Nature, Memoir

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 26, 2019

Reviews

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite the adventure story. Sometimes I think I'd like to climb a mountain but then I remember that I hate being cold and I really like snacks.

[Christy Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a powerful vulnerable and inspiring story. Giving perspective on an incredible feat but also on the importance of purpose in life and how that’s often found right in front of us

[Jane Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharon Wood summits Everest as the first North American woman to reach the top of the highest mountain in the world. A stunning achievement at 29 years of age. But this is so much more than another Everest book, Written 30+ years after the climb, as readers, we benefit from her reflection on Everest shared in such intimacy that you can't put the book down. Hard to believe this is her first book. Through Sharon we become part of the team exposed to all the struggles, competition, rivalries and genuine support that Sharon receives from her team mates. Her confidences shared with Jane Fearing the only other female (non climbing) on the team and the challenge of having her ex boyfriend on the US team also trying to put the first woman on top of Everest.

I have read many climbing books and watched many adventure documentaries from the comfort of an armchair at my home in the mountains of Fernie BC, Canada. Rising by Sharon Wood delivers a unique and very personal experience to the reader that, in my opinion, is the best of the best about Everest. Highly recommended.

[Nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary adventure of spirit and teamwork. One of the better Everest memoirs I have read.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book!!

[Rainbowgardener · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a mountain climbing book as a woman writes it. Plenty of technical stuff about coloir, seracs, pitons, ascenders, different kinds of snow and ice, HACE (high altitude cerebral edema), etc. But she also shows us how the different members of the team got along, sharing very cramped, uncomfortable quarters (a tent on the mountain) for two and a half months, under extreme emotional and physical stress. She talks about what she experienced -- oxygen deprivation, altitude sickness, exhaustion-- AND how she felt about it. She is willing to share how discouraged, depressed, overwhelmed she was at times, how ready she was to quit, if someone had just said the word.

And this book was written twenty years after her Everest climb. So she writes about what happened after, how the climb changed her life, what she feels about it now.

I thought about giving this book my feminist label and decided it wasn't quite intentional enough about it. But there is pretty much in here about what it is like being a woman climber in the decidedly man's world of high level mountaineering. The only other woman on her team was Jane, the cook. Being a cook is not nothing on an Everest expedition. Jane eventually had to make it past Base Camp and Camp One to Camp Two, at about 18,000 feet elevation, carrying loads of food and equipment up on her back, and stay working hard at that elevation for a long time. So Sharon and Jane bonded and were able to do the kind of "girl talk" with each other, about feelings and relationships and the "boys" on the climb, that neither of them could do with the boys.

The book starts as the team is arriving at Everest. So almost entirely missing except for a few mentions in flashback, is what you might call Phase I of an Everest expedition, the organizing. Getting a team together, getting funding and sponsorship, figuring out EXACTLY what food and equipment and how much of each item the team will need for 70 days on the mountain. Once they are at Base Camp, if something is missing, they will have to improvise or do without. There's no corner grocery to run to. (In fact they were supposed to have two ovens for Jane to use for baking, but the ovens were never found. So Jane improvised with a pot inside a pot.) And then all that stuff has to be organized and labeled in such away that it can be found when it is needed and kept out of the way until then. Then it has to be packed appropriately (they brought 1000 eggs!) and transported from Canada to Everest and up the mountain. Wood's team used no Sherpa labor. They apparently had yaks helping them move stuff as far as Camp One, the first one past Base Camp, but not after that. Total when they arrived at Base Camp, they had five metric tonnes of food, clothing and gear, cookware, equipment, oxygen tanks, etc, etc.

One thing that is not in the book is anything about the commercialization and over crowding of Everest, long lines of people waiting to go up, lots of garbage. She climbed Everest in 1986 and never went back. Apparently it hadn't gotten so crowded back then.

It's a short, easy, fast read. The writing is powerful and engaging. I read the book in one day, because I couldn't put it down.

[Terry Lapalme · Rating 5 out of 5]

You would think that being the first North American woman to climb Everest would deliver untold joys and glory in the years following. However, upon hearing Sharon Wood speak at the Banff Book and Film Festival, it was obvious her story would differ from other Everest stories. The after shocks of such success at the top are stunningly as harsh as the conditions endured. What was striking besides her honesty in recounting how she had borne an enormous burden of guilt since 1986 for having been given the opportunity to summit was her strength and ability to have tackled such a climb at the age of 28. My Fernie, British Columbia Book Club found much in Sharon’s book to discuss.
Wood shares as much about the human experience as of the rigours of climbing and surviving. The conditions endured while climbing are unfathomable to most of us such as sleeping on the edge in snow caves during relentless storms. She vividly takes you to the cold, the blinding snow, and the sleepless nights but also to the intensity of high-altitude relationships till you understand the power of her mantra, “Believe and Begin”.
Tough decisions must be made on the mountain – is a summit bid safe at all? And for whom? For those who were still healthy, nobody knew who would be going all the way up. Wood details these life-or-death decisions that weigh heavily on the leader and change the course of life for each member.
I loved reading her story – the female perspective is full and rich, and Sharon does not leave things out that she and her team mates probably wish she could have –but this Everest burden needed to be shed and her honest revelations are inspirational and a boon to public discussions of mental health. To have achieved such a feat and be so humble about it, only proves how much Wood deserved her summit opportunity. Writing her memoir was a brave and cathartic exercise. Living as an Everest celebrity proved to be as difficult as the climb itself but fortunately, in revisiting the Everest experience, she quiets her demons and shares a stunning account of an accomplishment that warrants her permanent celebrity.
Whether you are an armchair adventurer, an alpinist, or someone who has viewed the great mountain on a trek, Sharon Wood’s book will challenge you to “Believe and Begin” just as she did here in becoming a writer – and with that same “can do” attitude penned a beautifully evocative memoir.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite good as climbing/mountaineering books go. I would've liked more about how exactly she got involved with Outward Bound and more about the technical preparations for Everest (prior to the mountain), but maybe that would've made it a straight memoir and too detailed/boring? IDK, but for a woman under 30 to have amassed the skills for Everest and to be invited on an expedition (and not just paid to go) is incredibly impressive.

I also liked that she wrote a lot about the impacts of high altitude climbing on not only her physical abilities and breathing, but on her decision-making ability. Reading about climbers bypassing stranded/dying climbers and you see a lot of judgment about what was done/wasn't done. Sharon truly shows that it's not always a conscious decision, or the decision you'd make when not under such duress.

I'm almost a month back from Nepal and I really need to plan to go again for the EBC hike.

[Abby Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really sweet book. I am not a mountain climber, but Wood's prose did transport me--viscerally and emotionally--on her climb up the West Route of Mt Everest. More impressive, however, was her emotional honesty about herself. The book is written decades after her climb. I saw her at a reading of the book, (where she was great) and she said it had taken her that long to really figure out what she needed to write about, what the experience had meant to her. A very interesting read, not just for mountain climbers, but for anyone interested in the life of someone who really pushed herself to the edge.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a lot of books by people who have summitted Mount after rest. One thing I love about this book is that Sharon Woods is so specific about each danger that happens to them. When the latrine they have dug completely falls away a few feet away from them, I get a much more real sense of the severe risk to their lives they encounter each moment they are up there. Without dramatizing, she describes in detail the things as they happen. The moment to moment changes. The frequency with which they have to make choices that increase or decrease their chances of survival.

[North of Boston · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've just finished this book. To this reader, it a poor sign when an author writes complete dialog to reflect the conversations with and among her climbing team 30 years later. This does not diminish her incredible accomplishment as a climber, but as a reader, I find it difficult to find credence in the accuracy of the dialog. While it is helpful for an author to allow some time for an experience to sink in, looking back 3 decades, complete with dialog seems unrealistic.

I found it curious that while she complained about the press and people only wanting to talk with her about her success on Everest, she parlayed that into a lifetime career of motivational speaking and profited from it. Sounded like she wanted it two ways. Her brief descriptions of her presentations comes across as generic advice, which is perhaps what motivational speakers dish out, anyway. There are other mountaineering books by women that are much better. Suggest checking out Arlene Blum's "Annapurna: A Woman's Place"" or "Breaking Trail" for a good read.

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very honest.
Very Outward Bound.
Very Canadian.
Very much enjoyed reading a climbing book by someone who actually, herself, knows how to write and tell a compelling story.
Very good antidote to Ed Viesturs and his small army of co-authors who seem to have progressively gained the common sense required to tone down his sexism. (nb: using a coauthor is somehow an acceptable "shortcut" in Ed's world. along with "climbing an entire mountain on another team's fixed ropes," but *not* "being a woman and using a small amount of bottled oxygen")

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book transported me to Mount Everest and the world of mountaineering. More importantly, it was relatable and yielded so much insight for me, as a woman who aspires for great things in fields dominated by powerful men. I learned so much from this book about grace, humility, patience, and speaking up for yourself. A great read for anyone who climbs any type of mountain—be it in Nepal or at your office.

[Merry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Becoming the first woman North American woman to summit Mt. Everest via the west ridge from Tibet, the author tells the harrowing, difficult journey she took back in 1986. A very difficult route, the Everest Light team from Canada accomplished this without the use of Sherpas. She and only one other teammate made it to the summit. Twenty years after, there still had been no one else that summited via that same route. I enjoyed this book.

[Krisztina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing with my current mild obsession with reading mountain/Everest memoirs, I'm struck by how different each story and climb are. This one is well-told and focused solely on their climb, not the history or other climbers, which makes for a faster read. Also: no Sherpas! Much harder route. Virtually no oxygen. So different from current tales up the mountain.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Honest account.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feminism has come a long way

[Mary Tidlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

A female experience and perspective of climbing Everest. A great read and a lovely person to know.

[riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forever inspired.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting memoir.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading about her climbing Everest. Incredible adventure story. I could have done without reading all about the aftermath, her divorce, etc… I did really like the redemptive aspect at the end though.

[Anjali · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1986, Wood was part of an elite Canadian team hoping to summit Mt. Everest by way of a variation on the West Ridge route. The goal was for Wood to be the first North American woman to reach the summit, and as the subtitle shows, that was accomplished. Wood wrote this memoir recently, more than 30 years after the climb, but the account feels fresh and vivid, full of details and an emotional honesty from Wood that perhaps was only possible with decades of reflection. I really enjoyed the combination of technical details and personal insight.

[Pat McHugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sharon Wood was the first North American woman to scale Everest. This is a level headed account of her training and that expedition as well as her coping with her life afterward, which is a journey in its own right. The craziest story in this (spoiler alert I guess): Sharon's crappy ex-boyfriend surprise confronts her ON EVEREST and he's with HIS NEW GIRLFRIEND who is from the United States and therefore ALSO TRYING TO BECOME THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN TO SCALE EVEREST. Phew!