Seven Summits
by Dick Bass, Frank Wells, Rick Ridgeway

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Book Reviews of Seven Summits

Book Review: "The Mountains Win Again" - John Popper
Summary: 2 Stars

Both men were used to getting their way in the business world (although Frank Wells couldn't operate a microwave or buy his own clothes), pushing people about, and letting money do the talking. When the idea occurred to them to climb the highest peak on each of the continents, they naturally thought that their characters and a little physical conditioning would meet with success. Amazingly, they were successful - thanks to skilled climbers who risked their own lives to allow these two men to try to fulfill their Seven Summits dream.

Rick Ridgeway, the hired pen for this book, treats his benefactors, Bass and Wells, as if they were modern day heroes: men who constantly fought against adversity and always persevered, as well as men who tackled the continents' highest peaks by spending an obscene amount of money making sure that they had a good chance at the summits. The tone of his prose is almost hagiographic when he describes the mental anguish the two men underwent as they balanced their multi-million dollar careers with the cost and time involved in climbing each of the peaks; and unintentionally comic as in the descriptions of the camaraderie between Bass, Wells, and their new found climbing buddies as Bass recites Robert Service's poem, "The Men Who Don't Fit In" (incongrous since Bass and Wells are the consummate insiders).

I must admit, I did gain some begrudging respect for Dick Bass. After all, in his fifties, he did climb each of the seven summits. However, one must consider if the success of this enterprise didn't in a way contribute to the overcrowding of the 8,000 meter peaks and to disasters such as the one described in "Into Thir Air." And of course there are the mountains, and they save the book from being a total bust. I wish that Ridgeway would have given them center stage rather than Bass and Wells but, then again, mountains don't deal in money.

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