By Dick Bass & Frank Wells with Rick Ridgeway
These two gentlemen decided while they were in their 50’s to summit the tallest mountain on all seven continents. Neither one of them had mountaineering experience but they certainly had the money to do it.
It is a good read for those of us who are interested the outdoors and big mountains. Personally my tallest mountain I have ever climbed is Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in continental US at 14, 505 feet which I did in 2012 while backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail. But what these guys did is technically way above my hike up Whitney.
These guys goal was to climb all seven mountains in a year; Mt. Denali in Alaska, Aconcagua in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe, Vinson Massif in Antartica, and Mount Kosciusko in Australia, and Everest in Asia. They had to take time off of work, which ended up being two years for Frank.
The money is takes to do these climbs is ‘above my pay scale’ for sure. The Antartica climb was over $200,000 each to orchestrate. Anyway, if you are a hiker or a climber, you should read this book, it was interesting to learn about the logistics and the mental and physical requirements to climb one mountain, let alone seven.
Note: Spoiler alert: One of them technically did not reach the goal. You’ll have to read the book to find out who.