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288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 20, 2019
When we transcend the fear of failure and terror of the unknown, we are all capable of great things, personally and as a society. We might not always know where the journey will lead us. We might feel a burden of difficulty, but all paths lead to discovery. Both good and bad life events contribute to the fabric of who we are as individuals and as a civilization. If we continue to trek purposefully toward our dreams, into the planet and beyond, we just might achieve the impossible.
The archway of ice above our heads is furrowed like the surface of a golf ball, carved by the hand of the sea. Iridescent blue, Wedgwood, azure, cerulean, cobalt, and pastel robin's egg meld with chalk and silvery alabaster. The ice is vibrant, bright, and at the same time ghostly, shadowy. The beauty contradicts the danger. We are the first people to cave dive inside an iceberg. And we may not live to tell the story.
If you cave dive long enough, you will eventually face the death of a friend. Worse, you may even recover the body of one, or hold them as their life force ebbs. In those moments, your life will be changed forever. Back then, in Huaulta, I was new enough to cave diving and exploration that I had not yet lost a close friend. In my gut, I knew that if I were going to participate in extreme endeavors like this expedition, my days of innocence were numbered.
"I will take you on an uncomfortable rendezvous with fear. You will feel cold and claustrophobic when you read this book. But I challenge you to recognize the humanity in that sensation of terror you're experiencing. I encourage you to accept that you are an explorer like me."