Mount Everest: Confessions of an Amateur Peak Bagger

Flynn, a PR professional and self-described amateur, "late bloomer" climber, with sportswriter Fallesen, delivers a sprightly, entertaining look at his adventures and misadventures along the road to his climbing Mt. Everest at age 47. Flynn covers his two attempts, but his first, unsuccessful effort makes up the more appealing half of the book. He is blunt about the "selfish" aspects of a climber's life, as well as its dangerous charms: "Here's our dirty little secret—If no one ever died on Everest, it would not be as big a deal to climb it." His forthright admission that he was "emotionally and mentally unprepared to get to the top" underscores the importance of what he finally does learn, from the value of proper pre-climb weight and cardiovascular training to the practice of "little things" such as keeping feet free of blisters. Most significantly, Flynn doesn't try to romanticize the hard reality of climbing and what it actually felt like as he achieved his dream: he admits that he experienced "[n]o joy whatsoever" at finally reaching the summit of Everest, just "a profound sense of relief that I could now turn around and go down." Photos. (Mar. 15)