Beyond Possible: The man and the mindset that summitted K2 in winter

“Beyond possible” by Nimsdai Purja is a true depiction of a larger-than-life character. It is a serious and sensible pushback to a stereotype mindset. A story of a mountaineer that is not at all limited to mountain community or climate change awareness. It is a story of a top-of-the-line military man who follows his vision and dreams and makes impossible journey of switching career and jumping to something where a single misstep leads to death.Management, leadership, initiative, decision-making, bravery, resilience, perseverance, focus is some of the virtues the book offers. This book offers every person on earth a chance not to settle on mediocrity or live a circumstantial-life. One travels one 8000er to the other learning all the life changing events and concepts while turning every page of the book. It is so captivating and thrilling that till end this unputdownable makes the reader a super human.As a business leader in a corporate world, I give him 10 on 10 for putting his more than a fantastic character into words.The book opens up to world that is so unforgiving and tragic where death is a common phenomenon. A world where touching a peak is not enough; making back to the basecamp alive is something we call ‘Summit’.

Nims story is one of hard work, perseverance, faith and guts. He has followed his goals and dreams to achieve what had been impossible. Great story!

Book is great!! Nims is a stud

Great insight into how Nims achieved one of the most amazing feats of mankind, and the obstacles he had to overcome to summit the the 14 peaks in record breaking time. A great read for anyone, whether you're interested in mountaineering or just improving your own life and achieving your own personal goals.A true British/Nepalese hero.

As someone who climbed Everest, I can state that this is one of the best books I read about mountaineering, it’s so sincere and factual, it reaches directly to your heart, and you can feel every emotion and dedication in it, highly recommended

Great book Nimsdai. You truly are a legend. Took me a couple of days to go through your achievements and there were no dull moments. It felt like following you on your expeditions.

Great achievement.

Great read!

Having followed Nims' plans and progress from the beginning I was interested to read the book. I devoured it in 2 sittings. It is a page turner and would appeal to a wide audience.The accomplishments are clearly phenomenal as you'll likely know, but as a book I found it lacking in scope.There is little technical detail of the mountaineering. The entire ascent of one peak (Manaslu) is written as follows: "I climbed to the very top and made my point". Earlier peaks have more words given to them, but the latter ones are largely give far too little justice and there is little interesting content here. Throughout there's interestingly little sense of the awe inspiring landscape conveyed.The book is too brief when you consider the monumental story and written too simply. If Nims and the publishers had taken more time rather than rushing it out I think it could have been much improved. This is perhaps why the content decreases as the journey progresses.There are rare moments of introspection when the overwhelming self belief drops away and he opens up about a mistake, for example a fall when unclipping on Nanga Parbat but this scope of openness isn't there enough. It is only when unexpected and unplanned things happen that the book truly comes alive.The events that transpired on Annapurna, Kanchenjunga are phenomenal to read about and the sense of being there is strong. What happens is remarkable and the strength of Nims and his team is truly incredible.Talking of his team, he is very proud to highlight and promote the skills of fellow Nepalese climbers and Sherpas which is great to see. Their own stories would be interesting to put down on paper for a more rounded account of some of the amazing ascents and descents and how they found the experience. Some of the team can be found on Instagram etc and are well worth following by the way. Input from them to the book would have been useful I feel.Throughout following his achievements through social media the non stop positivity and (for want of a better term) self-aggrandisement was totally understandable and a strong thing to see. There was a huge sense of purpose which was obviously important to Nims own confidence and to pull in the financial support necessary.This same style runs throughout the vast majority of the book and truth be told is over the top and off-putting with the repeated soundbites that an uninformed reader would frankly put down as ego.What is perhaps most interesting is that these traits are undoubtedly what has enable Nims to be able to achieve all that he has (in and out of mountaineering). With reflection it does prove the power of self belief and self confidence which is Nims' strong message throughout the book. He's the only one to have done this journey and that's clearly what it takes.

Ultimately the book of the century, the man behind it, changing the entire concept of what’s possible. A beautiful account of the most testing missions. Nims’s ability to control his mind and achieve his goal shows us all how we can achieve our own goals. Nims also puts into perspective how SMALL many of our goals are. Probably the most inspiring book written for hundreds of years, backed by real trial and tribulation. What Nims has done has truly been, one great leap for mankind.

I really tried to get into this book i just found it all about the author giving it the big 'I am'. His explanations of climbing everest were very basic and all about how he was better than everyone . I couldnt get into the book because of this so only read the first half. Perhaps he becomes more humble in the second half.Never the less a great achievement by the author and some people may be inspired by the content.

Some of the content is interesting and don't get me wrong his life is very fascinating. However, like some other readers I just couldn't get past how self-centred and egotistical the narrative and perspective is! It just seems completely separated from reality and was so off putting I ran out of motivation to continue the book. If you're looking for something specific to mountaineering then this would be bareable, but if you're looking for a motivating and interesting autobiography I'd look elsewhere.

What a phenomenal guy! This fascinating, awe inspiring book tells the story of how Nims smashed the world record for summiting the world's fourteen highest mountains. The previous record was seven years and Nims and his team do it in only six months.Not content with that, he moved on to the next challenge, and on 16 January 2021, Nims led a team of Sherpa climbers to the first ever winter ascent of K2!Just blown away by this man who came from the most humble of beginnings in a small village in Nepal. I think a BBC documentary should be made about his life.Really hoping that Nims writes another book about his K2 ascent and this time includes more detail about the scenery, weather and food.