Dare to Dream is the account of Matthew Dieumegard-Thornton and his journey to the top of the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, in May 2012. The ascent was world record breaking, and the three members of the expedition, including Matthew, became the youngest ever team to successfully summit and descend the mountain. The climb was acknowledged by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II & Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the story reached an estimated 100 million people worldwide.
The book however begins in a different fashion, describing the longer journey to the mountain, and the decisions that led him to that point. The book focuses firstly upon the humorous aspects of his home town in Lincolnshire, a notoriously flat county, and his younger life as one of the best squash players in the country. This lifestyle is then flipped upside down by a fateful stint in the French Alps where a love of the mountains grew, and eventually saw Matthew planning a complex route to the top of the world. Three major expeditions then unfold, firstly in the little known Kyrgyzstan, secondly in Nepal to a remote range of mountains, and finally to Everest itself, with each period of time in between expeditions revealing a new set of challenges, both physically and emotionally, to overcome.
Over the course of the expeditions, there moments that will make you laugh, moments that will make you cry, and many moments where you’ll be aghast, as Dare to Dream brings Everest and all its dangers to the chair. No other account has documented the successes and tragedy on the south side of Everest during the 2012 season, and whilst these events are described and explained, many personal challenges and dangers are also brought to life, such as the constant danger to life and sanity from the constant high altitude, the hidden dangers of the bottomless crevassed underworld, and the obvious dangers brought by multiple avalanches, all of which came too close.
The book concludes with the huge physical and emotional stresses built up during such a journey, and the unique perspective that the climb has given a young 22 year old man.
The book however begins in a different fashion, describing the longer journey to the mountain, and the decisions that led him to that point. The book focuses firstly upon the humorous aspects of his home town in Lincolnshire, a notoriously flat county, and his younger life as one of the best squash players in the country. This lifestyle is then flipped upside down by a fateful stint in the French Alps where a love of the mountains grew, and eventually saw Matthew planning a complex route to the top of the world. Three major expeditions then unfold, firstly in the little known Kyrgyzstan, secondly in Nepal to a remote range of mountains, and finally to Everest itself, with each period of time in between expeditions revealing a new set of challenges, both physically and emotionally, to overcome.
Over the course of the expeditions, there moments that will make you laugh, moments that will make you cry, and many moments where you’ll be aghast, as Dare to Dream brings Everest and all its dangers to the chair. No other account has documented the successes and tragedy on the south side of Everest during the 2012 season, and whilst these events are described and explained, many personal challenges and dangers are also brought to life, such as the constant danger to life and sanity from the constant high altitude, the hidden dangers of the bottomless crevassed underworld, and the obvious dangers brought by multiple avalanches, all of which came too close.
The book concludes with the huge physical and emotional stresses built up during such a journey, and the unique perspective that the climb has given a young 22 year old man.
