Peak by Roland Smith
My rating: 5/5 cats
everest is a giant mountain that people climb when they want to die. there is no other reason to climb it. is there a mac-and-cheese restaurant at the top?? no. is tamerlane up there?? nope. do you get free rent for life if you succeed? no way. so what’s the allure??
the thrill of danger?? throw a rock at a bear. it will take less time and you are less likely to freeze to death. a sense of achievement? run a marathon—you will probably not lose any toes. wanting to be among an elite group of smug people? eat a lot of hot dogs, really fast—you will probably not asphyxiate. unless you aspirate one of ’em. try not to.
really—mountain climbing, who needs it?? everest does not want you to climb it, otherwise why would it be so big?? why would it be so hard to breathe up there?? to successfully climb everest, you have to clamber up a ways, then rest, then GO BACK DOWN so your blood doesn’t explode or whatever, and then go back up to the same place you just were and somehow try to breathe the fake air that’s up there, and you incrementally make progress, and maybe you get pneumonia or HAPE (where your lungs get all sloshy with liquid—awesome) or you lose some toes or other extremities, maybe you run out of food, maybe you fall down a crevasse and hopefully die instantly, maybe your rock crumbles beneath you or your rope fails and you tumble down forever, maybe a boulder falls on you or an avalanche buries you or a yak eats you. the only thing that could make this scarier is zombies. and that is only a matter of time—there are zombies everywhere else these days.
so despite all my feelings about people who would opt to lose fingers and toes (FINGERS AND TOES!! YOU NEED THEM!!), i loved this book. from the beginning, i knew i was going to love this book. it is purely awesome the whole way through.
peak, the son of two once-famous, now separated mountain climbers, gets caught scaling a skyscraper in manhattan and tagging the very top of it. this is not the first one he has done, but the first one they catch him at. after a copycat dies in his own attempt, peak cuts a deal and gets shipped off to live with his dad in thailand, but dad has a little surprise. instead of going fishing, like normal safe people, he takes his son to tibet climb everest (with a secret agenda to make peak the youngest american ever to reach the top, also conveniently getting publicity for his climbing business)
and the rest is all climbing. and danger. and friendship and personal growth and some really wonderfully touching scenes and a perfectly appropriate ending. i strongly recommend this book, to y/a and other audiences. this is both a great adventure book and a great coming-of-age novel.
and now i see he has a book called sasquatch. this author is my new best friend.
