Blind Descent

Surviving Alone and Blind on Mount Everest

By: Brian Dickinson

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Former Navy Air Rescue swimmer Brian Dickinson was roughly 1,000 feet from the summit of Mount Everest, also known as "the death zone", when his Sherpa became ill and had to turn back, leaving Brian with a difficult decision: Should he continue to push for the summit or head back down the mountain? After carefully weighing the options, Brian decided to continue toward the summit, alone. Four hours later, Brian solo summited the highest peak in the world. But the celebration was short lived.

After taking a few pictures, Brian radioed his team to let them know he had summited safely and began his descent. Suddenly, his vision became blurry, his eyes started to burn, and within seconds, he was rendered almost completely blind. All alone at 29,035 feet, low on oxygen, and stricken with snow blindness, Brian was forced to inch his way back down the mountain relying only on his Navy survival training, instincts, and faith.

In Blind Descent, Brian recounts his extraordinary experience on Mount Everest, demonstrating that no matter how dire our circumstances, there is no challenge too big for God.

©2014 Brian Dickinson (P)2016 Brian Dickinson

Amazing Story!

Thank you for sharing your journey with all of us. Praise God for your life.

Amazing faith

I love that God is woven throughout Brian's Everest journey. Also, that his family plays such a prominent role.

Wow!

I am almost at a loss for words. This is a wonderful story of faith, determination and survival, The story is well written with appropriate flashbacks to the author’s previous experience as a navy seal and rescue swimmer. I am so grateful that the book was written!

Another heroic Christian

The best part was when he went blind and had to not give up. That was trivialized and veiled in the heroism of answering a challenge and fining faith. Subjugating facts into delusions made the story weird. Two stars is a gift.

Inspirational and gripping

This was a really great book. I listened to the Audible audio version, and the narrator was really good - good pacing, good reading style, pleasant voice. I would definitely listen to more books narrated by Adam Verner. The book itself was really good. It presented a different view of mountain climbing than I had heard before - putting faith and family first, appreciated God's creation, and that summitting isn't the most important thing. The book kept me on the edge of my seat as the author described his trek up and down Mt. Everest. It was really refreshing to hear such great things about the author's wife and kids, and to see such a supportive family. If you love mountain climbing, adventure, or non-fiction/memoirs, I highly recommend this book.

Amazing

Best audiobook I ever listened to - it strengthened my faith in so many ways, what a blessing. Thank you!

Like you are there..

Brian’s account is riveting in that his level of detail brings the non-climber and climber alike right into the experience.

Thank you Brian for your genuine and heartfelt expressions of your growth in your relationship with Christ, your live for your wife and kids and this timeless work of inspiration around courage in the face of grave circumstances. God bless you and your family each time you touch another with this story!!

What an adventure!

This was an incredible story of a life committed to adventure and to God. Amazing and definitely worth the read.

Awful narration ruined this story for me.

Although a devotee of mountaineering stories, this one was boring, uninteresting, and a bit too religious. Perhaps better narration would have captured my attention more.

Interesting and Compelling

This book was a very interesting and detailed account of author Brian Dickinson’s assent to the summit of Mount Everest and the temporary snow blindness that occured to him shortly after reaching the summit when he was all by himself.

I received the Audible version of this book in exchange for an honest review. I liked the book quite a bit however in all honesty I expected more from it. It is truly a fascinating story but I felt like it took too long to get to the good part…the reason I was attracted to the book was to find out what happened with the blindness and how he overcame it. The details of the climb leading up to the climax are good and I learned a lot about climbing but I would have preferred more time be spent on what happened to him. I also felt like there was an excessive amount of detail about other events in the authors life from his Navy days that did not relate to the main story at hand.

All in all, a very good book especially if you have an interest in climbing.