I have done very little this weekend other than to do the usual chores, attempt to tidy the spare room, do some personal admin and read.

Mostly, I read about Reinhold Messner being stuck on a mountain. Well, 14 mountains. All of these 14 stories seemed to involve storms, snow, ice, hypothermia, frostbite, and people generally being cold. 

So, when I woke up this morning to an invitation to go for a walk in the countryside and my phone told me that is was currently -5C outside, I knew what I had to do:

Decline the invite and make soup. 

The soup is nothing special, but it tastes great and is pure comfort food.

I obviously made enough to freeze in batches for quick dinners later. 

What's in it? - Mostly things I found in the fridge/kitchen:

- onion

- celery stalks

- green beans

- veggie chunks (I love them. I know that some people don't like them. That's ok. Use whatever you want. Chicken would probably also work well ...)

- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes

- potatoes 

- vegetable stock

- salt/pepper

- paprika

- smoked chipotle peppers

- parsley

- slices of lemon ... this was a last-minute decision. Lemon works well in solyanka, so I thought it would work in this.

After a brief discussion with BrokenTune, I decided to DNF this book. Because a) I think I have learned everything that I can possibly learn from this book by now and b) I really don´t want to pick it back up again.

DNF on page 200.

Ok, I've just broken the 200 page mark. I'm not sure what the point of this book is. All of the chapters kinda read the same:
"They/he start(s) climbing, there will be a scene of distress, they/he descend(s) the mountain. The End."

There is nothing in the narration that tells me anything about the mountain, the individual challenge, the climbers involved, ... or anything else that might be interesting.

Mountain no. 6 is done and my thoughts so far are:

• Messner is a living testament to human endurance and willpower.
• The fact that he is still alive is a miracle.
• I think, when it comes to climbing a mountain, Messner is an incredibly egotistical and selfish person. Which I don´t mean as a criticism, because mountaineers, especially the professional ones, have to be that in order to achive their goals. With this book, I´m getting some fascinating insights into the psyche of a professional climber, which I´m always eager to learn about. But it makes me wonder if he really minded the public backlash and criticism as much as he tries to make me believe in his narrative.
• My favorite passages in this book are the ones in which Messner is up on a mountain and he has to face a dangerous situation. You can feel the tension in some of those passages and Messner´s almost haunted narrative style emphasises this even more. 

I have to say, though, so far it´s not my favorite book about the mountaineering world. I haven´t quite made out yet why. Maybe it´s the episodic feel of these small snippets about every mountain, maybe it´s the narrative style ... I simply don´t know. 

That is even possible to climb the highest mountains on earth in alpine style is still mind-boggling to me. And absolutely awe-inspiring.