Seven Summits [Paperback]

Dick Bass (Author), Frank Wells (Author), Rick Ridgeway (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1988

Two Undaunted Men Frank Wells was the head of a major motion picture studio. Dick Bass had made his fortune as an energy and resort entrepreneur. In middle age, both men left behind home, family, and successful careers to share an impossible dream. Seven Unconquered Summits The challenge: be the first to climb the highest mountain on each of seven continents, from McKinley to Kilimanjaro to Everest. The obstacles: many and merciless, from ice storms to illness to a measurement question that threatened to make their record-breaking expedition a sham. The prize: the sheer, exhilarating triumph of standing at the top of every continent on earth.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dick Bass was a successful entrepreneur. Frank Wells was a Hollywood studio president. Together they set out to accomplish what no one else ever had: climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. The fact that both men had so little climbing experience turned out to be their greatest strength: since they had no idea what they were in for, they never considered their task out of reach.

Rick Ridgeway, an accomplished climber in his own right, chronicles their journey, allowing readers to decide if these adventures are the result of midlife crisis or simply about men pursuing a dream with unshakeable resolve. Whatever the case, Ridgeway's fast-paced adventure provides gripping descriptions of the world's tallest peaks. We see the logistical nightmares of Antarctica's Mt. Vinson, the unpredictable weather of McKinley, and the extreme altitude of Everest's 8,848 meters. Ridgeway continues up Aconcagua, Elbrus, Kilimanjaro, and Kosciusko with lively accounts that capture the day-to-day operations of expedition life, and more intriguingly, the growing bond between two driven men. --Ben Tiffany

From Publishers Weekly

Their dream was to climb the hightest mountain on each of the seven continentsan exciting prospect for any world-class mountaineer. But Bass and Wells, businessmen in their early 50s, were rank amateurs. With Ridgeway, one of America's foremost climbers who accompanied the pair on some of their expeditions, they tell their story here. It is a gripping tale of adventure that embraces courage, disappointment, joy and commitment. The process of getting to Mt. Vinson in Antarctica was a marvel of logistics. For their third and final attempt on Mt. Everest, Wells had to choose between the summit try and his family; Bass completed the seventh summit to become the oldest man to stand on top of the world. The two were lucky enough to have the money to fulfill their dream; they also had guts. In mountaineering lingo, they proved themselves "real animals." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (November 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446385166
• ISBN-13: 978-0446385169
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #519,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars RIP ROLLICKING ADVENTURE STORY...A MUST READ, November 12, 2000

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Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Summits (Paperback)

What happens when two wealthy, middle aged men with commanding, type A personalities get together? Why they decide to climb the seven summits, the highest mountain on each of the seven continents! Their attempts to snare their trophy mountains makes for a rip rollicking good read. What is most remarkable is that one of them actually manages to summit each and every one of the seven mountains in question.

The account of their adventure runs the gamut of the human experience: humor, pathos, joy, and ultimate success. Their achievement is incredible, considering that they were middle aged, novice climbers. Yet their grit and determination, coupled with a seemingly endless cash flow, allowed them to hob nob with the mountaineering elite and, ultimately, enables one of them to achieve their collective dream.

These are two men who, when looking back on their lives, will never find themselves in the position of saying "would've, could've, should've". They dared to live their dreams. Would that we were all so inclined. In any case, their adventures during their remarkable quest make for some very absorbing reading. Climbing enthusiasts will enjoy this book, as will as those who love a good adventure story.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DAWN OF ADVENTURE TOURISM, October 1, 2002

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Brooser Bear (City of New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Seven Summits (Paperback)

I came across an interesting description reading while Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air: It mentioned a certain socialite mountaineer who threw a party before climbing Mt. Everest to which she showed up in her climbing gear. Krakauer also mentioned in passing that she was on a coveted Seven Summits quest to climb the tallest mountain on each continent. Later on I came across a memoir by one of the guides on the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, titled My Seven Summits. Having seen this quest mentioned on several occasions, my curiosity was piqued when I saw this book about Wells' and Bass' exploits.

This book is straightforward and simply written. Positive in tone, it portrays two classic type-A entrepreneurs, in a style with which Donald Trump was once lionized, before he had to let the bankers take over his holdings, before the S&L crises and the Enron debacle. The two men are portrayed with all of the bravado and the flair of Kipling-toting prep school boys that the two men once might have been, reliving their youth in the adventure. The book does not dwell on the technicalities or insights of the Inner Game of Mountain Conquest, and self-serving though it may be, it is basically honest and it illustrates several truths, perhaps unintentionally. The theme of danger, of climbers dying or coming close to it is prevalent throughout the book, with several fatal accidents taking place during the course of the book. There is no dwelling on why or if the deaths were preventable, but along with the book about sailing called the Proving Ground, this book underscores a point that most money buys the best expertise, best sailboat, and avoids the disaster that befalls other climbing parties, with less technical expertise. The book touches on, but does not address the negative impact a paying expedition member has on the rest of the expedition, which sees the patron as a free loader and is best seen in the hostile reception that Dick Bass received when he tried to hitch his way up the Mt. Everest with other climbing parties that had obtained the coveted permits.

This book is also a good account of the genesis of modern adventure travel. The two could honestly claim to have started it, and in the early nineties adventure tourism became a marketable commodity. What one must understand is that in our society Expensive sports like mountaineering usually attract two sorts of people: Those, who seriously get into it, but have no money and people with bucks who want to do it. People, who have no money work whatever labor they can get paid for, climbing as much as they could, much like Krakauer and Marty Hoey, mentioned in this book. If they get lucky, they eventually become professional guides or journalists or something else on the periphery that would allow them to take part in climbing expeditions. The other half are people like Bass and Wells, who can afford the $60,000 climbing fees and other expenses related to mountain climbing. In the old days of exploration, these wealthy patrons were themselves amateur scientists who took active parts in the expeditions they sponsored and received accolades in various geographic societies for their scholarly endeavors. Nowadays, we get a glimpse of another type of explorer - one who has no interest in climbing other than as a thrill and recreation. These outsiders pay a lot of money to spend their vacation skydiving or ocean kayaking or climbing Mt. Everest and whose money, spent on expensive equipment, guides, lessons and other fees, basically support the pros and the scene of whatever extreme sport they engage in. In time, there emerged a whole genre of magazines dedicated to marketing various extreme sports to so-called adventure tourists.

This book is a very good glimpse into the genesis of the adventure tourist industry. Amazingly, the seven summits were reached by Bass in 1984-1985 and the worst excesses of this trend started by Bass and Wells ended up in disaster in 1996, when 12 people lost their lives in a blizzard on Mt. Everest. Most of the victims were paying clients; some of them should have never been on the mountain. It took a little over a decade for some of the themes touched in the Seven Summits to reach the disastrous proportions on Everest. In a way, this book written in 1986, was prophetic of things to come.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adventures on Mountaintops with Money to Burn, August 9, 2001

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M. Swinney "Marc My Words" (Flower Mound, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Summits (Paperback)

Frank Wells, the Walt Disney exec, and Dick Bass, a top entrepreneur set out to climb the continent's seven highest summits in a logistical challenge of peak bagging. The writing doesn't really capture the magic of the mountains and envelop you in the high altitude mystique.

The book does have it's moments, like the challenging endurance journey of climbing Aconcagua, and the suspense of if they even climbed the right summit for Mt Vinson in Antarctica. Since it is a book about climbing mountains, it's a worthwhile read, but there are far better mountain climbing books out there..."Into Thin Air" by Krakauer...anything by Heinrich Harrer. Frank Wells died shortly after the book came out from a helicopter accident while heli-skiing. The movie "The Lion King" is a far better and moving tribute to a great man than this book. Skip this book and resist the urge to climb mountains above your head for the sake of peak bagging and go out and get "Into Thin Air" and be caught up in the altitude.