Showing results by narrator "Silvia Vasquez-Lavado" in All Categories

Peruvian climber Silvia Vasquez-Lavado spent a lifetime running away from trauma. As a child she suffered sexual abuse, and as an adult, she struggled with both her sexuality and addiction. In spite of her private battles, Silvia climbed many of the world's greatest peaks. But she had yet to take on Everest. In the Shadow of the Mountain tells Silvia's story of abuse, addiction and trauma and then how, in 2016, she gathered a party of six sexually abused girls, and together they began the two-week expedition to Everest Base Camp. 

Endless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her pulse-raising memoir. A Latina hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she’d suffered as a child, she started climbing. She then took her biggest pain as a survivor to the biggest mountain: Everest.

Sumida en una depresión profunda y en una espiral autodestructiva de alcoholismo y sexo desmedido, Silvia decide volver a casa, dispuesta a enfrentarse a sus sombras más oscuras. Los años de abuso sexual sufridos durante su infancia, la confusa búsqueda por su propia identidad y las cicatrices emocionales de un hogar disfuncional estaban acabando con su vida.