On the eve of the Everest movie premiere, survivor Beck Weathers is a changed man — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:04well the takeaway from Everest uh turned
3. 0:07out to be not at all what I expected I
4. 0:11you know was pursuing the Seven Summits
5. 0:13quest which is to climb the tallest
6. 0:14mountain on each of the seven continents
7. 0:17uh I got that idea from Dick Bass uh who
8. 0:20was an irrepressible soul and had
9. 0:23basically pursued that in leaving
10. 0:25Everest for number seven and I thought
11. 0:27that I would go and enjoy uh The Climb
12. 0:31unique culture uh but what I got instead
13. 0:35was an a serious wakeup call it's pretty
14. 0:39much like uh if you can't learn
15. 0:41something from dying then you are
16. 0:42definitely a slow
17. 0:44learner I'd always
18. 0:46been fairly obsessed with work with
19. 0:50training for
20. 0:51mountains
21. 0:52and those kinds of behaviors make you
22. 0:55very successful but they also do not
23. 0:58leave a lot for the people in your life
24. 1:01and as a result uh those that had
25. 1:04alienated uh my wife Peach and aranged
26. 1:07me somewhat from my kids uh and so I
27. 1:10came back from Everest with no other
28. 1:12choice other than to change my life uh
29. 1:16and fortunately doing
30. 1:19so uh has given me a real sense of peace
31. 1:23and allowed me to reconnect uh with
32. 1:26Peach and we're now just like a pair of
33. 1:27old shoes uh growing old together
34. 1:33comfortably the name of our book is left
35. 1:35for dead because I was left for dead at
36. 1:37least three times uh and I can
37. 1:42truthfully say that I've gone through
38. 1:43the entire experience of dying the only
39. 1:45thing that was lacking was the final
40. 1:48stoppage of the heart when I was out on
41. 1:50the ice in the storm I was unconscious
42. 1:53in hypothermic coma for 15 hours and so
43. 1:58why I woke up I don't uh truly know but
44. 2:02they while we were in the
45. 2:04Huddle uh they rescued the uh three
46. 2:09Fisher climbers and left the two Hall
47. 2:10climbers so that was left for dead one
48. 2:14they came out the following morning to
49. 2:17look at my body and yasco Nas's body and
50. 2:22once again even though we were still
51. 2:24breathing uh they reported us as being
52. 2:27dead uh because everybody knows that
53. 2:29once you go into hypothermic coma you
54. 2:31always die so that was number
55. 2:34two uh and then finally when I managed
56. 2:38rather Mir miraculously to get back to
57. 2:40uh Camp they still knew I was going to
58. 2:42die uh and did not plan to bring me down
59. 2:45but placed me in a tent alone so I could
60. 2:48finish the work that needed to be done
61. 2:50left for dead number
62. 2:53three I actually knew that I was dead
63. 2:57cuz even when I woke up I remember very
64. 2:59distinctly that the sun was 15° above
65. 3:03the Horizon and setting and of course it
66. 3:05moves 15° an hour and once it became
67. 3:09dark that nobody has survived two nights
68. 3:12out on Everest so at that point it would
69. 3:14be all
70. 3:16over uh and I knew that I was dead and
71. 3:20that's a very
72. 3:21interesting thing to come to grips with
73. 3:24uh and it really was uh not particularly
74. 3:26frightening but it was uh a sense a real
75. 3:30Melancholy because of what you would
76. 3:33miss uh and it
77. 3:36sounds a little unusual or I don't don't
78. 3:39know even fantastic but the thing that
79. 3:41kept me going was I could see in my
80. 3:43mind's eye my wife and my children
81. 3:47and that is what drove me to keep moving
82. 3:51even when I had stumbled one more time
83. 3:53and didn't think I could even get up
84. 3:55again well if I were to ask
85. 3:58you to to believe and truly believe that
86. 4:03an hour from now you'd be dead what are
87. 4:06you going to think about it certainly is
88. 4:08not going to be any
89. 4:10material
90. 4:12physical uh thing it's going to be the
91. 4:15people that you really care about
92. 4:17because that's at the end is what truly
93. 4:20is important in your life and so it was
94. 4:23not at all surprising that when I truly
95. 4:25believe that I was dead that that's
96. 4:28those were my last thoughts
97. 4:34well obviously I've got some interesting
98. 4:36challenges uh physically uh I was very
99. 4:40fortunate that I was able to be strong
100. 4:42enough to get back to Dallas back to
101. 4:45Medical City uh because getting Medical
102. 4:48Care was real high on my list of things
103. 4:50to do and one of the things you want to
104. 4:52be able to do is
105. 4:54access uh world class facilities and I
106. 4:57had uh fortunately uh in my
107. 5:00doctors Greg anigan Mike Doyle and Joe
108. 5:03Sample some superb Physicians and so
109. 5:06Mike Doyle did Civil Wars on my right
110. 5:10side so this is just a straight ordinary
111. 5:14amputation so if you could use a
112. 5:16prosthetic which I don't use but it was
113. 5:19a good idea at the time on the other
114. 5:21side I've got Star Wars because this is
115. 5:23very fancy
116. 5:24microvascular uh surgery with whole
117. 5:27moving pieces of my head and my back
118. 5:30in onto my hand uh which was largely
119. 5:33dead and so we we recreated a mitt uh
120. 5:37and all of my function is in that half
121. 5:39of my little thumb right there and that
122. 5:41allows me to do pretty much anything
123. 5:44anybody else does I work I drive um you
124. 5:48know go on the internet everything that
125. 5:51you do in your normal day-to-day life I
126. 5:53do the other big issue was that I had
127. 5:57destroyed the middle of my face and
128. 6:00you're not really very attractive if you
129. 6:01just have a hole in the middle of your
130. 6:03face I had to tie a pork chop around my
131. 6:05neck to get the dog to play with me so
132. 6:08it was not not a great time uh and you'd
133. 6:11go before it got reconstructed you go
134. 6:13out to a mall or something and little
135. 6:14kids would come running by and you
136. 6:16stopped like they'd seen an alien uh a
137. 6:19real uh honest evaluation what you get
138. 6:23from children and so they grew a nose
139. 6:26upside down on my forehead and after
140. 6:28some months of cultivating my upside
141. 6:31down nose they swung it down put it on
142. 6:34the middle of my face and they I think
143. 6:36they did a pretty good job I mean it's
144. 6:38that I wasn't handsome before I'm not
145. 6:40handsome now but you know I caus myself
146. 6:42improving uh and so that was a a big
147. 6:46event actually the nose got to be fairly
148. 6:48famous uh my nose was asked to be on the
149. 6:51Oprah show and so I got to ACC company
150. 6:54uh the NOS to
151. 6:56Chicago and Greg anagan who did that
152. 6:59surgery as well was so jealous that I
153. 7:01now have to give my nose to him for a uh
154. 7:04month of the summer and every other
155. 7:07weekend uh movie very much follows that
156. 7:10lead I I think it would be asking way
157. 7:13too much of a Hollywood screenwriter
158. 7:15given the opportunity to create a
159. 7:18personality for a conservative Texan not
160. 7:21to enjoy some of that moment uh so the
161. 7:25character starts off being a bit of a
162. 7:26jerk uh and then actually he gets more
163. 7:29human as the movie progresses but and it
164. 7:32you know initially it's was a little
165. 7:34jarring uh because the character says
166. 7:37things it just wouldn't even occur to me
167. 7:39to say uh but as I thought about it I
168. 7:42said figured well at least for one
169. 7:44period of my time I'm going to be
170. 7:45devilishly handsome and I'm married to
171. 7:47Robin Wright so I'll accept that well
172. 7:51the basic character hadn't changed uh
173. 7:53have always been outgoing and friendly
174. 7:55and like everybody that I meet unless
175. 7:57they give me some reason not to
176. 8:00but I always in the past lived in the
177. 8:02future that was the nature of how I I
178. 8:04conducted everything I'd set a goal i'
179. 8:07pursue the goal achieve the goal set
180. 8:09another goal and just
181. 8:11constantly uh making that Circle which
182. 8:15means that you're always living in the
183. 8:16future which never arrives and so now I
184. 8:20really don't do that so much anymore I
185. 8:22live in the today the present I enjoy my
186. 8:26new
187. 8:27grandbaby uh and it's a lot more
188. 8:30peaceful and it's you know life is just
189. 8:33simply better when you get to the point
190. 8:35where you can live comfortably in your
191. 8:38own skin and not try
192. 8:42to Define Yourself by achievements alone
193. 8:46I had to learn to do it because Peach
194. 8:48gave me no
195. 8:49choice when we got back she told me that
196. 8:53uh she decided to divorce me while I was
197. 8:55on the mountain she'd had just enough of
198. 8:57my adventuresome uh
199. 9:00spirit and wasn't going to tell me that
200. 9:02until I got back to Dallas and the day
201. 9:05that I walked in she told me and I
202. 9:09understood and I told her that I would
203. 9:11never blame her for that and I you
204. 9:15know I I could understand how she would
205. 9:19feel that way and you know I would
206. 9:21support whatever decision she would make
207. 9:23and she said well no uh damn you you got
208. 9:27one year you proved to me
209. 9:30that you're a different person and your
210. 9:33priorities are different right and that
211. 9:37what is important to you in your life is
212. 9:40your family and the people around you
213. 9:43and at that point I knew that there a
214. 9:46lot of struggles I've had and that was
215. 9:48the most vital that I've ever
216. 9:51done well we're still together we as a
217. 9:54testimony uh to sheer stubbornness Peach
218. 9:58and I both
219. 10:00it's one of those things if you want to
220. 10:01divorce you got to do it I'm not going
221. 10:03to divorce you I love you you know one
222. 10:06of the things that is so true though is
223. 10:08that you can love
224. 10:09somebody measurably and it's just not
225. 10:12enough because you got to be there for
226. 10:13them and if you're not there you force
227. 10:15them to make a life for from themselves
228. 10:18without you and even though you may
229. 10:21believe at some point you'll slow down
230. 10:23and you know you B say
231. 10:26Tada I'm here I'm ready I'm back
232. 10:29uh at that point they've had to move on
233. 10:32because they have no
234. 10:33alternative and because of
235. 10:37Everest uh I had to change my uh
236. 10:42priorities and it's worked life is good