In The Shadow Of The Mountain by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

YOU DON'T CONQUER A MOUNTAIN. YOU SURRENDER TO IT ONE STEP AT A TIME.

Join us with Silvia Vazquez-Lavado and her courageous and powerful book

Deeply moving, this is a remarkable story of compassion, humility, and strength, inspiring us all to have faith in our own heroism and resilience

Despite a high-flying career, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado knew she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, and hiding her sexuality from her family, she was repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child.

When her mother called her home to Peru, she knew something finally had to change. It did. Silvia began to climb.

Almost entirely by mistake, Silvia found climbing and discovered a freedom she’d never felt before at being close to nature and for the first time able to tackle some of her demons and trauma head on. Something about the sheer size of the mountains, the vast emptiness and the nearness of death, woke her up. And then, she took her biggest pain to the biggest mountain: Everest. But Silvia didn’t travel alone, trekking with her to Base Camp, were five troubled young women on an odyssey that helped each confront their personal trauma, and whose strength and community propelled Silvia forward.

'Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is a warrior. I'm in awe of her strength and courage' - Selena Gomez

'In the Shadow of the Mountain has all the elements a great memoir requires - a strong voice, cinematic prose, a hero to root for - in essence, an extraordinary story about an extraordinary woman's life' - San Francisco Chronicle

'Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is a woman possessed of uncommon strength, rare compassion, and a ferocious stubbornness to not allow the trauma of her childhood to destroy her life' - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

'Powerful' -New York Times

About the author:

Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is a humanitarian, mountaineer, explorer, social entrepreneur, and technologist. In 2014, Silvia launched Courageous Girls to help survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking find their own inner strength. CNET named her one of the 20 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley. She has also been recognized by the Peruvian government as a cultural ambassador. She is a charismatic and powerful speaker and she recently shared the stage with Deepak Chopra and Russell Brand for the Global Mental Health Summit.

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