Beyond Possible (Young Readers' Edition)

Born in Nepal in 1983, Purja's earliest goal was to serve in the British Army with the Brigade of Gurkhas like his father. His father's salary in the service caused the family to struggle a bit, but with the help of his older brothers, he attended a boarding school, and was able to join the Gurkhas in 2003. Eventually, he joined the elite Special Boat Service, which no Gurkha had ever joined. It was tough work, and he was not always treated well by his fellow soliders because of his ethnicity. He was able to take advantage of specialized training, and took a number of climbing courses. This lead to a strong desire to climb Everest, but there were challenges along the way. Even though his first climb had some problems, he was very interested in pursuing this activity, and eventually got on a G200E team trying the climb in 2017. After resigning from the military, he started investigating how he could manage to climb more impressive mountains. This isn't a cheap endeavor, but he undertook efforts to fund Project Possible, as he named his plans. He took money out of equity in his house, and slowly his expeditions gained more attention. He used his adventures to bring attention to climate change, and has so far climbed fourteen of the highest mountains in the world.

Future adventurers who have read Olson's nonfiction title Into the Clouds: The Race to Climb the World's Most Dangerous Mountain or the fictional Peak (Smith) or Everest (Korman) series, Beyond Possible offers a fascinating look at what it takes to climb these imposing peaks right now. For me, reading about these climbs is a much better way to experience them than to plan a trip myself, but young readers hungry for adventure will look at Purja's experiences and envision themselves in his hiking boots. His story is inspirational and harrowing all at once.