Customer Reviews

Seven Summits

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Having been recommended by my boss I was skeptical, but this book proved to be a great motivating tool. The two main characters had a specific goal in mind, made the necessary sacrifices to reach it, and never gave up. This was great reading. It makes we want to climb!

I had a different take on the story than many of the previous reviewers. I never felt that Bass and Wells tried to hide their wealth or the fact that they were novice climbers. What I found most inspiring was the fact that they rarely let failure deter them. I'm sure true mountaneers will gain little from the book, but "outsiders" will gain a great deal of knowledge about the sport without having to interpret technical descriptions.

I really enjoyed this book, and despite it not being as descriptive as other Mountaineering books. If you take this as a story of two men who have little climbing experience achieve a goal of climbing the highest Mountains in each Continent, 7 summits in total. I found it an amazing book of self determination, motivation and true friendship.
Yes it is true, they couldn't have otherwise succeeded at this unless they had the money to do so, but the book never denies the reader that insight.
This booked had me routing for them from their first Everest adventure, I just wanted them to achieve their goals.
For those who are wanting a descriptive mountain climbing book this isn't for you, but those who want to read about a great challenging adventure over coming multiple diffculties this is an excellant read.

The story of Frank Wells and Dick Bass and their dream to climb the highest peak on every continent is an amazing, inspiring and almost unbelievable tale. The sheer enormity of the task, their own inexperience and age, the setbacks of all kinds which plagued the quest, all seem more than enough to send this dream down in flames.

Yet somehow, Dick Bass was able to do it (his partner was forced to quit before the end). While it's obviously much easier to make a dream like this come true when you have the kind of cash these two men have; money alone won't get you to the summit of Everest. The trials of these two men and their associates in pursuit of the seven summits dream should stoke the imagination and fire the spirit of anyone who has ever aspired to something grander than finding a way to watch four TV shows which share the same time slot.

The writing of the book itself needs some polishing. The recreated dialogue, in particular, comes off as stilted and wooden.

Technical problems aside, this book is a monument to the achievement of Bass and Wells. Let it inspire you. If you've had a dream all your life, follow it. Live life vibrantly, make a memory. If you can look back over the past few months without noticing anything you think you'll remember, let the story of these men inspire you to change that.

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be one of them.

After reading "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, I was eager to read more about the people who climb the tallest mountains. While I admire Frank and Dick's success, particulary considering their age, I couldn't help get the impression that this book was one long accolade to the men rather than the accomplishment. It felt like two very ego-driven, very successful men had manipulated a two-bit author into writing about how wonderful they were. I never once got the sense of loneliness and fear of being above 26,000 feet (the "Death Zone") that Krakauer wrote about so well.

This book, in the main, is nothing more than hubris in print. Wells and Bass typify the attitude of today's wealthy elitists: the belief that because they have lots of money, they are somehow ennobled and entitled to everything the world has, including the world's highest mountain peaks.

Skip this book. If you want to read good mountaineering lore, try "Annapurna" by Maurice Herzog, or Hillary's account of his climb of Everest.

This is one of the books I read when my interest in mountain climbing adventures was first starting. At the time, I liked it. But since then, I must say that I have read many books more exciting, fast paced, gripping, than this. I did like the humor in the book and the characters were interesting. And I really learned a lot about the 7 Summits.

For other books that I found gripping and well worth reading, see my other reviews or my listmania list. I am an avid reader of true adventure and/or survival stories.