From Booklist
On May 16, 2002, Phil and Susan Ershler stood atop the highest mountain in the world. Theirs, too, is a story of overcoming great odds: Susan had only started climbing in her mid-30s, and Phil, a veteran climber (and the first American to reach the top of Everest from the north face), suffered from Crohn's, a disease that would have kept most men on the ground their whole lives. When a cancer diagnosis threatened to end Phil's mountain-climbing career, the Ershlers fought back the only way they knew how. Rather than using a single narrative, the authors each contribute their own first-person accounts (which appear in differing typefaces). While skipping back and forth between narrators can be a bit jarring, the effect is to tell two stories simultaneously, which allows readers to contrast Phil's and Susan's perspectives as events unfold.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
On May 16, 2002, Phil and Susan Ershler reached the
top of Mt. Everest and became the first couple in history
to scale the fabled Seven Summits. What made
their achievement all the more remarkable was that Susan
was not a mountain climber, but a high-powered
Fortune ® 500 executive who had never hiked or climbed
until she met Phil at the age of 36. Phil, a professional
mountain guide who was the first American to summit
Everest from its treacherous north face, had climbed his
whole life with Crohn's disease, a chronic, debilitating
illness. Adding to these challenges, just before their final
summit, Phil was diagnosed with colon cancer, and the
resulting surgeries and complications were expected to
end his career. This is Susan and Phil's story: a tale of
love set in the mountains, a story of triumphal highs
and devastating lows in quest of a seemingly impossible
dream.
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