The Last Mountain

The Last Mountain begins in January of 2010, with the advent of three separate expeditions created to produce the first female summiteer of all fourteen of the 8,000ers. Two of the climbers, Logan Healy, an American ex-ski racer and former model, and Chun Suek Yen, a national superstar in mountaineering-obsessed South Korea, need only the summit of K2 -- the second highest and most lethal mountain in the world, to complete the heroic feat. The expeditions of both Logan and "Sukey" are supported with near limitless resources by global sportswear/equipment companies.

The quest is joined by a third participant also reaching for the acclaim and riches that would come with the Holy Grail of mountaineering, but for more personal reasons. French climber Sophie Janot, a single mother of two, is coming out of a self-imposed maternity hiatus from climbing, to attempt to summit her final three mountains - a winter climb of Cho Oyu, followed by Gasherbrum II in June, and then, to beat Logan and Sukey to the top of K2 in July. Sophie though, has none of the resources of her two competitors. The divorce from her philandering, high-living husband who turned out to be a poor excuse for a professional gambler, has left her destitute, living with her girls back in the house she grew up in with her parents in Argentiere. Sophie has begged, borrowed, and cajoled old sponsors to fund her last opportunity for financial security for her and her daughters. Sophie Janot would be the decided underdog in the race to the top of K2, if not for the fact that she is, by universal acclaim, the finest woman mountain climber of her generation. Her friends, Logan and Sukey know what they're up against.

The three expeditions are tied together by the presence of the legendary climber, Jack Finley, the second American to have summited all fourteen. Invited to join the Zermatt Expedition by Logan Healy, his childhood pal and ski-racing competitor at Vermont's Green Mountain School, Finley is also an old friend and climbing companion of Suek Yen. Now retired from climbing, married with two small children and working as a car salesman in Burlington, Jack's real motivation to reluctantly participate in the "circus at K2", is to once again see his long lost lover, Sophie Janot. Ten years after being forbidden to marry by Sophie's autocratic, protective father, the renowned mountaineer, Marcel Janot, Jack Finley has never been able to extinguish the flame in his heart for Sophie.

The Last Mountain is an adventure story about three strong women taking control of their destinies to accomplish a near impossible feat of courage, endurance and heroism. Like the history of mountaineering, woven throughout the story, The Last Mountain contrasts the exalted purity of scaling the world's highest peaks that once defined mountaineering, with the crass commercialism that has replaced it. And like the sport itself, The Last Mountain is a story of personal triumph, sacrifice, and heartbreaking tragedy.

Gerry FitzGerald is a retired advertising executive. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism/Northwestern University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. FitzGerald is a member of the adjunct faculty of Western New England University. He lives in East Longmeadow, MA with his wife Robin.