Review of “Mt Everest Confessions of an Amateur Peak Bagger”

Seeing this title on the list of “recommended” books on Kindle Unlimited made me curious. Since  I have a subscription I had nothing to lose by trying it - glad I did.  

Title/Author:

“Mt. Everest Confessions of an Amateur Peak Bagger” by Kevin Flynn with Gary Fallesen

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review: Most mountain climbing books are either written by or about climbers who are either part of a professional guiding team or are proficient enough in the sport that they are considered elite. The author of this book, Kevin Flynn, would probably not be considered to fall in either of these categories. Nonetheless, his story of perseverance to become one of the climbers to have reached the summit of Mount Everest is a fairly quick, easy and enjoyable read.

A native of Rochester, New York, Flynn became interested in climbing when he took a trip a few hours east to the Adirondack Mountains. He became a member of the “Adirondack 46”, an exclusive club of those who have scaled all 46 peaks in that range. He then takes the reader through his adventures of summiting higher mountains such as Denali. He writes with self-deprecation, both humorous and not so humorous. But that’s just being humble - he is doing well enough that in 2002, he decided to make hist first attempt to scale Everest.

Here is probably the saddest part of the book - not only did he not make the summit on that trip, making it as far as the highest camp (High Camp), but was because he was injured and needed assistance down. After conferring with his wife Maggie (also a member of the Adirondack 46 club), he tries again two years later and this time succeeds. But even that is tinged with sadness. Flynn writes how achieving this amazing goal didn’t give him any joy at all and his descent was much slower than it should have taken. He finds out at Base Camp that he had pneumonia in this climb.

While not joyous, there are happy moments in the book as well as much gratitude to the Sherpas who were with him on both attempts. That's what I felt was the best aspect of this book - the emotions of Flynn as they feel genuine and the reader will feel them as well. The climbs are also told in plain language which is helpful for those not familiar with those terms. For those reasons, I believe even those who don’t read many mountaineering books (I certainly don’t qualify for that) will enjoy the book.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mount-Everest-Confessions-Amateur-Bagger/dp/0976743132/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=