I received a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for my honest review.

I was really excited to receive a copy of this memoir. Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, in her quest for healing and subsequently giving back to others, spearheaded an organization geared towards helping victims regain their internal strength through mountainous climbing adventures. There are definite triggers in her story so take heed - sexual abuse, alcoholism, suicide and severe depression. As enlightening as Silvia is - so admirable and a true warrior, I had a difficult time wanting to pick this up and read. The depression in it felt crippling to me and I didn't want to feel those feelings. I think this is a testament to her writing that I felt her aching depression, but your mental game better be in a good spot to tackle this one. While her climbing does play a drastic role in her overcoming, I wish I felt more of the power of that "I made it, I'm going to be ok" mentality but it wasn't there for me. I felt even the summit had a bit of sadness to it as Silvia makes her offering at the top.
I love nature and while I am not a climber, I could definitely relate to how her adventures in reaching the summit and leading a group of women to base camp as a means to gain inner strength and help heal is truly a process that works. I believe any endurance event whether it be climbing, triathalons, marathons, hiking, etc can tap into a feeling of self confidence and strength people don't realize they have inside of them.
This is also a story of coming into forgiveness. In order to heal, Silvia has to learn to forgive - her parents, herself - it is only through forgiveness and compassion that we can truly heal and rise above. It is one of the most difficult things and seeing (reading) how Silvia is able to do this is inspiring. One can continue to blame people for their circumstances, or rise above in spite of them. Silvia takes the brave route and ultimately is able to rise above.

A smidge trauma porn-y but didn't feel as dirty as Wild. I normally dont love the woman is traumatized and finds herself in the woods type stuff but I did enjoy the uniqueness Vasquez-Lavado brought to the table and by the end was Really rooting for her to get to the top of Everest! Part adventure, part take back her life, shes one of the few adventure memoir authors I'd really like to hang with. Worth picking up

Silvia Vasquez-Lavado has written a hugely powerful story, her story. Her ability to capture the physicality of mountaineering is stunning and through it her voice guides your understanding of her life, trauma, troubles, sorrows, growth, sexuality, in a raw and honest way. The novel alternates between the Everest climb and her past. The past is tough to read but the construction of this is done beautifully and purposefully to show the why and the how of getting to Everest. I loved the reflection on how you transcend trauma and the push to live in the moment that Mother Everest shows Silvia, and us, "No future. No past. This moment. This ladder." Finishing this book left me feeling thankful, for being allowed to read this and share in her story.

Silvia Vasques-Lavado is known as "the first Peruvian woman to scale Mount Everest" - but as her memoir reveals, her life has been so much more.

"In the Shadow of the Mountain" is told across two alternating timelines, the first focusing on Vasquez-Lavado's attempt to scale Mount Everest with a group of female survivors. She covers not only the grueling and dangerous progression, and the life-threatening encounters they face on a daily (and even hourly) basis, but reveals each of the women's stories and the previous lives of abuse and trafficking they managed to escape in Indian and Nepal.

The second timeline covers Vasquez-Lavado's personal history, starting from when she was a child growing up Peru. Even from a young age, she experiences some truly terrible crimes, and is sexually abused by a close family friend and physically abused by her own father. Her few attempts to speak up are ignored or suppressed by her family - an infuriating, but all-too-common situation for girls to be in. When she gets older, she's able to escape to America, but once again finds herself in a dangerous environment working for an alcohol company, where she succumbs to alcoholism in attempt to fit in and work her way up the corporate ladder. Vasquez-Lavado also covers the difficult topics of discovering and accepting her own sexuality, made even murkier thanks to her childhood, and how grief and loss can both hinder and help the progress made.

This was such a fascinating and well-written read, and I applaud the vulnerability that Silvia Vasquez-Lavado displayed in sharing both her triumphs and her struggles with us.

“As I stood looking out at the view, the answer was so clear I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. Everest was not about me. I wasn't supposed to be doing it alone. I wasn't supposed to be scaling mountains and staking my flag at their peaks like some modern-day conquistadora. It was about what I had to offer, what I had to give to a community--to women, to girls, like me. I had to keep my promise to climb Everest, but I was supposed to bring others with me. Other women like me. Survivors. That had been the message all along.”