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Editor's Note: The rights to our excerpt from To the Last Breath: A Journey of Going to Extremes, by Francis Slakey, have expired. The book is available from numerous online booksellers.
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In his new book, physicist Francis Slakey recounts the myriad physical and mental challenges in summiting the world's highest peak
Image: COURTESY SIMON & SCHUSTER
Editor's Note: The rights to our excerpt from To the Last Breath: A Journey of Going to Extremes, by Francis Slakey, have expired. The book is available from numerous online booksellers.
Francis Slakey is the Upjohn Lecturer on Physics and Public Policy at Georgetown University and the Associate Director of Public Affairs for the American Physical Society. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, a Fellow of the APS, a MacArthur Scholar, and a Lemelson Associate of the Smithsonian Institution. He has hitchhiked across Central Asia, lived with Masai in East Africa, scaled the granite face of El Cap, and skied in Antarctica. He appeared in the National Geographic documentary, Beyond the Summit, and his writing has appeared in Scientific American, Slate, and the The New York Times. In recognition of his adventures, in 2002, he was chosen to run the Olympic Torch from the steps of the U.S. Capitol. His memoir, To The Last Breath, is available wherever books and e-books are sold.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo paraphrase the poet, something there is that doesn’t love a brick wall. Excerpts like this are inexcusable: all good stories (and snippets) deserve a decent resolution and make you want to read more, not find out who lives/dies. The only positive thought I could come up with is that scientists are, after all, scientists first, and the craft of writing and publishing for the general public is far down their list of necessary credentials. I got so mad I duckducked the ending. Good writing, a good story, an unforgivable cliffhanger. And SciAm, you should check your editor’s judgment. What happened to the primary thrust of the mind at high altitudes? I thought the teaser was about that.
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Beauifully written. You really captured the feeling of being at high altitude and the feeling of being without resources. Great job!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was so engrossed in this that I tried to click NEXT several times before realizing that there was no next. I was expecting some manner of resolution.
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