To Live: Fighting for life on the killer mountain
by Elisabeth Revol

To Live: Fighting for Life on the Killer Mountain is a raw, emotionally charged account of survival at the very edge of human endurance, centred on Elisabeth Revol’s 2018 winter expedition to Nanga Parbat. Unlike traditional mountaineering narratives that build toward triumph or failure on a summit, this book is about collapse, rescue, and the will to stay alive when everything has already gone wrong. Revol writes from the inside of extreme exhaustion, frostbite, and isolation, giving the story an immediacy that is both gripping and unsettling.

The strength of the book lies in its intensely personal perspective. Revol recounts the ascent and catastrophic descent with Tomasz Mackiewicz, describing the brutal conditions of winter Himalayan climbing and the rapid deterioration that followed their summit push. Her focus is not on heroics but on the physical and mental disintegration that occurs at altitude—confusion, impaired judgment, and the narrowing of thought to the most basic instinct: survival. The narrative is spare and direct, reflecting the stripped-back reality of her situation, while also addressing the ethical and emotional weight of leaving a partner behind in an environment where rescue was almost impossible.

As a review of high-altitude risk, To Live is both powerful and uncomfortable. Revol challenges romantic ideas of alpinism by exposing how thin the line is between ambition and disaster, especially in winter conditions on one of the world’s most dangerous mountains. The book is not about conquest or legacy, but about consequence—what extreme choices cost the body, the mind, and the people left behind. For readers interested in modern alpinism, it stands as a stark counterpoint to celebratory summit stories, reminding us that survival itself can be the hardest and most meaningful outcome.