In May 1996, mountain climber Beck Weathers and his team attempted to complete their ascent of Mount Everest. Although they only had a small stretch to go, Weathers came down with a bad case of snow blindness.
After getting stuck in a harrowing blizzard with a wind chill of 100 degrees below zero, he fell into a hypothermic coma. Frostbite set in on his nose and hands, both of which were later amputated. Miraculously, he managed to survive, walk back to camp, and be airlifted for treatment.
“Initially I thought I was in a dream,” Weathers later recalled. “Then I saw how badly frozen my right hand was, and that helped bring me around to reality.”
