Climbing Beyond The Clouds

This is a worthwhile read. I can definitely recommend it to others. Unfortunately, There is nothing I can think to say that hasn't already been said by others.

Bill_Ingersoll said everything. Unfortunately his comment spoils the endings with any amount of inference on the readers part.

I had very similar thoughts and "quibbles"

The Strength stat is totally misleading. It has no function other than to waste space and confuse the reader as to how the game works. I should add here that I never tried to make it hit zero. I assume it works. I thought the stat was going to be a fun sort of gamification, but this isn't a climbing sim. This recounts events while making very few compromises.

This writing is chiefly about the facts and isn't immersive. When I was scoring this on my rubric I was about to give it the minimal score for "Character" but then I remembered Ruth. Her characterization is the only real human touch to the story. This would be very sterile without those letters. I am very thankful that the author took liberties in that regard.

Climbing Everest in these days is one of the wildest things people have ever attempted in my opinion. These groups were about as close to the "adventuring parties" of fantasy as we could ask for. There are other examples as well, but deliberately traversing "the death zone" just because it is there is a bit like a dungeon dive. This and trying to reach the North/South Pole deserve more attention.

Fantastic!

This storygame is extremely good! I loved pretty much everything about it.

The branching was really great, and the quality was consistent enough that I was able to read through the story multiple times and enjoy every ending :D

The characters have great development, and they have personality. The well developed characters really helped me understand the storygame a bit better. I was very glad we got to hear a little bit from the wife's point of view in her letters.

The plot was also very, very creative. It was a really fun edutainment game, and it's certainly very original.

Sure, this storygame isn't the longest, but there's a good amount of branching, words per page, and the writing is very high quality!

I enjoyed every word of this storygame, and it's no doubt one of my favorites.

7/8, amazing work Will! :)

Beautifully written, Will. You did quite an amazing job with creating such a great sense of foreboding for certain scenes of the story, so much so that I questioned several times as to why anyone would even want to traverse such a dangerous mountain to begin with.

The letters of the wife were also a good motivation for me to get the protagonist back home safe, so I couldn't help but make that my priority as I read through this amazing story.

Once again, the amount of effort that you put in this shines through brilliantly.

Bravo, Will :) I definitely had my fun with reading this.

Fan-tas-tic! A great look into an incredible part of history.

I had to laugh out loud when I saw that Will promised that this would be his last Edutainment game lol.

I liked the elevation update on every page that helped me to stay oriented on my ascent.

I've never really understood the allure of Everest, but the evocative title caught my eye, and I found it to be a compelling read. That said, I feel like you could probably have done without the Strength stat, since it seemed like death was generally choice-based. I thought the letters were a poignant touch... especially since, as far as I can tell, there's no way to have your cake and eat it, too. Which was the right choice from a storytelling perspective, I think. Either ending is bittersweet.

All in all, a journey worth taking.

So before I got too far into this story I had to cheat first and consult Google. The hook for this storygame is to become the first person to summit Everest. But then when I began the story and saw this was about Mallory in 1924, and not Hillary in 1953...

Well, let's just say that I invite every reader to do that same Google search. And be sure to look at the pictures of what became of Mallory on Mount Everest.

Beyond the ultimate outcome of the expedition, I don't know much of details of what happened in June 1924. Therefore this was an informative read that I enjoyed. Since I knew the true ending ahead of time--those images from 1999 are hard to forget, 20 years later--I kept reading until I had the option to climb with a fellow mountaineer named Irvine. Then when disaster struck, I used my ice axe and found exactly what I was looking for.

So yes, this was a short but enjoyable read, giving me some insight into the events leading up to Mallory's death. But I do have some quibbles:

First and foremost, the "Strength" stat is mostly useless. On the first page there is an explanation that if this stat drops to zero, you die. But in all of the death endings I encountered this stat never did reach zero. In this story--as in real life--it's not math that kills you, but chemistry. Namely, the lack of both oxygen and heat makes Everest one of the few places on Earth where life is impossible. If climbers are dying by the dozen in 2019, then the odds were poorer in 1924.

Second, I don't find the writing style truly immersive. It rushes from factoid to factoid, but provides limited insight into the mountaineering culture. The story seems reasonably well researched, but it reads more like a school report than an immersive you-are-there experience.

On the other hand, the letters from Ruth were a nice touch, and I found her to be the most compelling character in the whole story. She was speaking from the heart, whereas Mallory is more of a cipher. Was there really a new letter going up the mountain every day, though?

Also, this story indulges in the tantalizing theory that Mallory actually did reach the summit, although we may never know for sure. However, it mentions something about Mallory's snow goggles flying off as he tumbled down the mountain. If I recall correctly, [SPOILER] these were among the items found on his body.

And for the ultimate SPOILER: https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ng-adventure/0000015d-6175-d466-a57f-f9fd87020000?source=relatedvideo

Really well-written. The letters from my wife made me more determined to survive for her, and I like how the options that could be considered more 'selfish' actually directly benefit you sometimes, allowing you to keep your strength.

There's one thing I really need to know, though - can you save Man?

This was well written and not too long of a story. I really enjoyed reading it! Nice little history lesson to boot.

it was good