09 September 2007 PEAK by Roland Smith, Harcourt, May 2007, ISBN: 0-15-202417-4

"Spent a little time on the mountain, spent a little time on the hill"

-- Hunter/Garcia

"This is it, I told myself. Fifteen more handholds and I've topped it.

"I reached up for the next seam and encountered a little snag. Well, a big snag really...

"My right ear and cheek were frozen to the terra cotta wall.

"To reach the top you must have resolve, muscles, skill, and...

"A FACE!"

"Mine was anchored to that wall like a bolt, and a portion of it stayed there when I gathered enough resolve to tear it loose. Now I was mad, which was exactly what I needed to finish the climb. "Cursing with every vertical lunge, I stopped about four feet below the edge, tempted to tag this monster with the blood running down my neck. But instead I took the mountain stencil out of my pack (cheating, I know, but you have to have two free hands to do it freehand), slapped it on the wall, and filled it in with blue spray paint.

"This is when the helicopter came up behind me and nearly blew me off the wall.

" 'You're under arrest!' an amplified voice shouted above the deafening rotors."

There is a good reason why fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello has been stuck practicing his climbing skills amidst the skyscrapers of Manhattan. But now that he has been caught tagging and summating the Woolworth Building, there is also a good reason why it is necessary for him to be away from New York for a while.

Fortunately, the professional-climbing father he has not seen in seven years gets word of Peak's widely-reported escapades and related legal difficulties, and before the teenager's face can even begin to heal, Peak Marcello finds himself halfway around the world in Kathmandu -- his first stop on the way to possibly becoming the youngest climber to ever conquer Mount Everest.

"I'd read at least a dozen books about conquering 8,000-meter peaks (peaks above 26,000 feet), including the three books my father had written. There are fourteen of those peaks in the world.

"It can take at least two months to get to the top of Everest, which is actually 8,850 meters tall. The long climbing time is not because of the distance, which is less than five miles, but because it's up.

"Most of the climbing time is spent sitting in the six camps along the route, letting your body get used to the thin air. If you go up too fast you might get mountain sickness, or high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Here's how HAPE works: your lungs fill with fluid, you can't breath, you go into a coma, then you die."

Peak's need to concentrate on the life-and-death struggle that exists for anyone preparing to climb Everest (and return alive) is constantly being impeded by the political complications that exist for climbers of the northern (Tibetan) side which is supervised by the Chinese military, by Peak's attempts to understand his father's long absence from his life, and by a female reporter who had covered his Manhattan skyscraper exploits and who appears at the base camp in Tibet with her personal chef, masseuse, and camera crew.

As he "climbs high and sleeps low," progressing through the stages that will prepare him for his shot at the summit, Peak Marcello discovers where the similarities between himself and his father begin and end, and decides for himself what in life really counts.

A few years ago, I read TO THE TOP by Stephen Venables, an excellent, photo-filled book for adolescents about the history of climbing Everest and that author's own successful climb. It will serve as a great follow-up for readers who are enthralled by this rewarding and death-defying tale and who aren't yet ready to leave the mountain behind.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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