Last evening I read a sample of "The Fatal Mountaineer," a biography of Willi Unsoeld. Much of this 30 page snippet was about the ill-fated trip in the late 1970s to Nanda Devi, a story that I was quite familiar with. Nevertheless, it got me reacquainted with a seminal figure in American mountaineering and outdoor education. It inspired me to re-read the account of his futuristic climb of the West Ridge of Everest in 1963.
Long a proponent of experiential education, he often maintained that ... "RISK IS AT THE HEART OF ALL EDUCATION." Or alternatively, "IT HAS TO BE REAL ENOUGH TO KILL YOU" ... an educational maxim that he lived AND died by.