IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN

A Peruvian-born mountaineer and humanitarian tells the story of how mountain-climbing helped her and a group of young sexual abuse survivors process old traumas.

Vasquez-Lavado's childhood was a nightmare of dysfunction. Her mother suffered in willful silence whenever her husband beat her. In the meantime, the author quietly endured sexual abuse from the family’s male housecleaner. College in the U.S. brought awareness of both the fear that had ruled her life and reckoning with her own homosexuality. Only after she moved to San Francisco did Vasquez-Lavado begin to embrace her sexuality and the boozy, self-obliterating lifestyle of a hard-driving professional. A profound fear of intimacy led to a seemingly endless string of one-night-stands and, later, to the destruction of her one meaningful relationship. The author won her lover back only to have professional ambition and a newfound desire to climb the world’s mountains come between her and her partner, who eventually committed suicide. Her mother’s death from cancer and her own divorce drove her to summit Argentina’s Acongagua, “the tallest mountain in all of the Americas,” and made her realize that her true calling was to help sexual abuse survivors like herself. Vasquez-Lavado created a nonprofit for young female survivors of sexual abuse and took a group of girls to the Mount Everest base camp, hoping that climbing and sisterhood could help them overcome their demons. She then transformed her sometimes-harrowing journey to the summit into a personal symbol for conquering the fears and shadows that had ruled her life. Complex and compelling, Vasquez-Lavado’s quest to heal herself from the deep wounds of patriarchy is also a vibrantly feminist celebration of female resilience. “Reaching the top isn’t about the accomplishment,” she writes at the end. “It’s about walking in the shadows long enough to see the other side, about learning how to roll with other women and men, and how to lean on and support others instead of white-knuckling life alone.”

An emotionally raw and courageous memoir.