Io, gli ottomila e la felicità

«Seeing a human being realize a dream is a wonderful thing. Like going to the Moon or discovering America: this is why we are here.» These are the words of Tamara Lunger, the young and very strong mountaineer from South Tyrol who in February 2016 attempted the summit of Nanga Parbat in winter with Simone Moro. He reached her, while she, just 70 meters from the top, gave up. She was feeling ill and listened to the "inner voice" telling her to descend, with the awareness that, if she instead went further for the sake of glory, she would then need help to descend, perhaps endangering her climbing partners. But who is this woman capable of feats hitherto attempted only by men? What drives you to extreme challenges? In this book Tamara tells her story by talking about the Nanga feat, but also delving a lot into her own world and within herself. The result is a disruptive personality who, having grown up in deep contact with Nature, accustomed from an early age to testing herself in sport, cultivates a passion for mountaineering as a way to find herself. Of course, being a woman in an environment that up until now has been almost exclusively male has a price: at base camp you have to assert yourself, demonstrate that you are capable of "manly" efforts and perhaps even keep mountaineers at bay "who look like sailors who have just come off a ship"... But Tamara, perhaps also thanks to a pinch of madness in the face of dangers, experiences mountaineering as a way to constantly improve herself, to be in harmony with the cosmos. For her, the challenge in the mountains also has something spiritual, it brings her closer to God. And it gives her happiness. Reading these pages, sometimes adventurous, sometimes meditative, is like having an injection of pure energy.