April 25, 2015 would go down in history as the deadliest day on the world's tallest peak. Mt. Everest was slammed by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. 18 people would die on the mountain; another 9,000 in the nation of Nepal itself. Jim Davidson, a veteran accomplished mountain climber, was on Everest that fateful day. Through his instincts and great fortune he managed to make it off the mountain alive. His account of that day, and the days that followed when he was struggling for survival, has resulted in one of the year's most riveting reads, THE NEXT EVEREST: Surviving the Mountain's Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again(St. Martin's Publishing Group; on sale 4/20/21; $29.99).

The largest earthquake in more than 80 years to hit Nepal altered a mountainside, a nation, and the global mountaineering community. For Jim Davidson, who was within a day of summiting Everest, it was equally life altering. After helping where he could in the disaster zone, Jim returned home to his family in Colorado to raise money for the Nepal recovery, and to further explore the ramifications of this growing threat to the community of climbers and residents in the Mt. Everest area.

As Jim explains, "After surviving the massive earthquake and avalanches I felt driven to share this story. I was intrigued by so many inaccurate media reports about what conditions are like on Everest. So, as a climber and an environmental scientist, I wanted to provide the readers with a clear-eyed view of what climbing Mount Everest is like, as well as the story of the deadly quake. Returning to the mountain in 2017 deepened my understanding of how post-traumatic growth occurs and how it helps refine people over time."

In Jim's mind, the quake and the conditions on Everest became an urgent call to scientists. "It was rewarding to apply my geology knowledge to examine how the deadly avalanches happened and why the seismic risk beneath Nepal keeps growing. As an environmental scientist, I became intrigued with conducting a data-driven review of the human waste problem on the mountain, even if that topic is a bit bizarre. That topic often gets wildly exaggerated and misrepresented in the media. The most fun part to write about was all the awe I felt during the nighttime summit push." Despite his thirty-three years of climbing experience and serving as an expedition leader, he wasn't sure he would ever go back. But two years after the disaster, in the face of risk and uncertainty, he returned for the 2017 climbing season on Everest to finally achieve his dream of reaching the summit.

Suspenseful and engrossing, THE NEXT EVEREST portrays the experience of living through the biggest disaster to ever hit the world's tallest peak, and Davidson's background makes him uniquely qualified to explain the mysteries that make up Everest. But this story is not about just "conquering" the mountain. Instead it reveals how embracing change, challenge, and uncertainty prepares anyone to face their "next Everest" in life.