Living It Up

Alpine climber Yuichiro Miura knows something about rapid descentin 1970 he became the first person ever to ski Mount Everest, hurtling more than a mile down the peak's icy flank in less than two minutes, and barely surviving. But handling the downhill slope of his own life proved trickier. Miura retired from climbing at age 60, deciding he was too old to haul himself up mountains anymore, but after five lazy years of Japanese beer and Korean barbecue, he had an epiphany: "I was only talking about my past, not my future. I wanted to challenge my dreams again." Miura decided...