Befor 1996 Beck Weathers had been an average guy. His child hood had consisted of traveling from one military base to another until he landed in Wichita Falls. He then graduated college went on to medical school to become a doctorthen got married and had two children of his own. After turning 40 he decided that he was in need of a new hobby in his life to keep him entertained. Even though Beck was not the most experienced of his fellow climbers on Everest his deternmination earned the respect of other climbers. Like Jon Krakauer commented... " Even though his inflexible new boots had chewed his feet into hamburger, Beck kept hobbling upward day in and day out, scarcley mentioning what must have been horrific pain." After Beck lacerated his corneas by accidentaly rubbing some ice crystals into his eyes he had to turn around and head down. Jon Krakauer was convincing him to turn back with him and let him be Beck's "eyes" until Jon said something of Mike Groom and Yasuko coming down, and Beck decided to wait for them to take him down instead of Jon. When rescuers found him he was in deep stages of hypothermia and had unzipped his jacket complaining of being hot. He lost part of his nose, cheek, and almost both of his hands. Doctors were able to take muscles from his back to repair one of his thumbs.
