But it is a useful and necessary fiction. We all tell ourselves stories, necessary to make sense of the world. If Beck Weathers needs the story of how a person’s true character emerges under certain extraordinary circumstances to frame his experiences on Everest, then it obviously works for him. I may not believe it–at least not fully–but this narrative is viable, as good as the next.

It’s difficult to say what is “true” and “false.” After all, the social element that is supposed to take us away from our core is inescapable; it is very very thick. It may also be artificial, but so is that necessary core self most of us try to realize, daily.