The Heart of the World
Cód:
491_9781733948203
Nothing rattled Keith Echelmeyer. Come back from rappelling into blue glaciers in Antarctica, teach a university class the next day. Crawl out from a plane crash with a broken leg, head to Greenland in a cast the next week. Bag an iconic Alaska peak for a first winter ascent over the weekend, stroll into work on Monday.He flew his single-engine plane like most of us drive cars. The mileage of his glacier flights equalled a few trips around the world.But May was a bit much, even for one of the world's most capable experts in the emerging field of climate studies. Finals, proposals, shuttling people and gear back and forth to Black Rapids Glacier, writing the Most Important Paper, the one that showed the rapid melt of Alaska's glaciers, which contained enough water to raise the world's seas 20 feet.His right hand. It wasn't helping. Dropping that wrench on the glacier? The numbness that made him clench, unclench. Flying had always been meditation. He flew by thinking of flying. Now, those times he needed to look down. Is my hand on the stick? One day amid the madness, he flew his Piper over blue-white icefields. Clear and calm, his best day of flying ever. Crossing all of Alaska, he landed in Yakutat, a fishing village surrounded by glaciers. He was hosting a conference there. That evening at a lodge, Echelmeyer's mighty body convulsed with spasms.At the top of his professional and personal arc, Echelmeyer learned of his brain tumor. No longer would he fly over glaciers, comparing their heights year after year to unravel one of the first compelling stories of change. He was, suddenly, no longer the physics genius, the fearless mountaineer, the man with maps in his head.Doctors gave Echelmeyer six months to live. He needed to finish his Science paper, and so much more.In that precious time he had left, Echelmeyer pulled on his climbing helmet and leaned on ski poles to check the mail. With help from friends, he hiked on two-week back
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