Chapters 1 + 2
In the first chapter we were introduced into the main character, Peak. He goes to a school where there is no grades, and has mentors instead of teachers. We also found out that Peak loves to climb. His right ear and his right cheek had frozen to the building during his illegal climb. He had been arrested right before he had made it to the top by a police chopper. He was then taken to the emergency room before heading to the police station because his face had been bleeding from being stuck to the wall.
Chapters 3 + 4
Peak was released from the hospital after getting stitches on his face from it freezing to the building. As he was leaving and being taken to the police station Peak was being asked many different questions from different reporters. The detective handling Peak's case had gotten a phone call from the mayor, about how upset he was about Peak climbing a building. But he was very relived because they had been tracking Peak's tags on many other skyscrapers for quiet sometime. Meaning that Peak would be put into JDC (Juvenile Detention Center) for a very long time. As a few days had passed with Peak being in JDC, the day of his trial finally came. When he was asked his plea, he would plead not guilty to all charges which included; criminal trespass, vandalism, reckless endangerment and many others. It finally came down to this - Peak would have to leave the country with is father who hasn’t been in the picture recently (Joshua Wood) and pay a fine of $150,000 which would be returned if Peak didn't violate the terms if his probation.
Chapters 5 + 6
In these chapters Peak was getting ready to leave for Thailand, and his younger half sisters were very concerned that they would never see him again, but he reassured the both of them. We also learned more about Peak’s life and both of his parents. His parents were both crazy about climbing and were becoming very popular in the climbing world but then Peak’s mom became pregnant confining her to a bed, but his father continued on with-out her. After Peak was born his mom started climbing again but one day when they were climbing she fell and broke her back and never climbed again. Peak’s dad(Josh) left as soon as his mom could walk again, and rarely came to visit. After many years one night Peak’s soon to be step-father (Rolf) came by to visit and seemed like he never left. They were soon married and they moved to New York, where then after a couple of years they had the twins.
Chapters 7 + 8
Peak was ready to leave the country but Josh, his father, was not. Peak was sitting at their gate ready to board their flight. He had been counting down the minutes until Josh got there. As Josh arrived Peak noticed that he had a strangely large amount of luggage, which he put off as nothing important. After sitting on several long flights alone because Josh had not been able to get seats together on such short notice they had finally arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. After Josh had worked out the whole Peak not having a visa they were off to their hotel. The night before Josh had instructed Peak that he would have a physical the next morning. Just as he was told the next morning Peak went to his physical, where test after test was performed on Peak. After the physical Josh came and picked Peak up. On the way back to the hotel Peak kept asking where they were going next and Josh finally told him. They were going to Mount Everest. Peak and Josh arrived at the Summit hotel, where soon after Josh left for base camp. He had told Peak that Zopa will be talking him to base camp in a couple of days. Zopa was a head Sherpa, but he quite climbing years ago and became a Buddhist Monk.
Chapters 9 + 10
The next morning Peak had gone through the climbing equipment to find most of it was too small. After what it seemed like hours of Peak playing with all of his new “toys” there was knocking at his door. It was Sun-jo, Zopa had sent him to bring Peak to him. Peak and Sun-jo road to town on the saddest looking motorcycle peak has ever seen. After they arrived at the temple, Peak was shocked on Zopa’s appearance. Peak was expecting a frail old holy man, but instead he was well defined as Peak could see his muscles from underneath his orange robe. Within minutes Zopa was finished and gave him and Sun-jo money for a taxi back to the hotel where he told them to wait for him there. When they got to the hotel Zopa was already there, Peak was shocked Zopa had sorted the equipment into three different piles. After he was finished they went into town to get replacement gear that would fit. Peak was a little unsure about getting this “new” gear because it had already been used unlike his brand new gear that Josh had given him. But he decided it was best to listen to Zopa. They took their time getting to base camp, as they would be stopping a lot to visit different temples. One night when the others were setting up camp, Zopa sent Sun-jo and Peak off to go climb where Sun-jo beat Peak to the top. The next morning Zopa made Sun-jo and Peak walk because he said the truck was too full, he also did this for the next couple of days. The next day Zopa gave them a break but then they were back to hiking during the day and climbing at night, and as they were almost at base camp Peak was feeling stronger than ever.
Chapters 11 + 12
The next day they all arrived at base camp, only to see Josh break a persons heart by saying that he couldn’t climb, and get punched in the face. Just as they were settling in a Chinese officer came and asked for papers making sure everyone was legal. Then disappeared just as quickly as he appeared. Josh continued to show Peak around just as he saw a sign, with Peak Experience written on it. Peak was shocked that Josh had named his company after him. Peak soon found out that a reporter was coming to cover his climb, the same reporter that wrote the story about him climbing the skyscraper. Josh also had a film crew coming to cover the climb. As the reporter (Holly) arrived she had decided that she wanted to climb to the summit with Peak and the camera crew.
Chapters 13 + 14
The day after meeting Holly, Peak went into the tent to meet the rest of the climbers. They consisted of seven women and sixteen men, out of all of those ten of which signed up for the summit attempted. All of the those climbers couldn’t find out that Peak was trying to make it to the top. If they found out a lot of people could find out and the Chinese might try to stop them. In the next couple of days Josh took the climbers that had been waiting up to ABC (a camp on the way up the mountain). During those days Holly decided that she and Peak were going to be friends. The camera crew and Peak and Holly had to stay back because they weren’t ready to climb just yet.
Chapters 15 + 16
The storm continued and the snow just kept coming down. Josh and all of the other climbers were doing well up at ABC, except a few men who were coming down with a case of HAPE (High altitude pulmonary edema) but it wasn’t very severe so they could make it down back to base camp okay. All of the climbers were very lucky the storm cleared up or they would have starved to death. One of the men that had HAPE the worst, also signed up for the attempt at the summit. But now Josh would have another opening on his climbing permit. The next morning Peak woke up with a sore scratchy throat. Within the next couple of hours Peak, Sun-jo and the camera crew would leave to climb up to ABC. Holly and Zopa had left earlier that morning because they were concerned that they would pass Holly too quickly. Within hours they had all made it up to ABC safely. Peak had not drank enough water on the way up and now was suffering from dehydration. By this time in the day Peak’s voice was completely gone and the weather was getting colder making the climb up to ABC harder. ABC was the highest Peak has ever climbed before. One they way down back to base camp it took them significantly less (3 days up, 9 hours down), also on the way back down they saw Josh who was on his way back up to ABC.
Chapters 17 + 18
The first night at base camp Peak slept a lot, until the Doctor came and checked his throat. She told him that it was getting better, but to keep taking the antibiotics to make sure it would go away. Sun-jo had gotten very sick on the way back to base camp, but the Doctor checked him too and he was going to live. Holly thought that Sun-jo should go the summit (Sun-jo was Zopa’s grandson). Josh and others on the team were very unsure about this because he was the same age as Peak, he also had a longer amount of time before his birthday. Which means he had more time to make it to the summit. Zopa had wanted this from the beginning, that is why he had brought along two more Sherpa’s on the trip up to base camp. Everyone was still concerned about this because if they got caught, the Chinese would probably never give them a climbing permit ever again.
Chapters 19 + 20
The teams were decided - there were going to be three teams. Team A, team B, and Team C (the secret team). Team C was being made up of Sun-jo, Peak, Zopa and the film crew and they were lead by Zopa, Yogi and Yash. While they were getting ready to go Peak had decided that Zopa was trying to make him weak so he couldn’t make it to the top. Sun-jo had been camping out in porter camps because the Chinese were certain that there was an illegal person on the mountain. If they caught him Zopa could be arrested as well. So Peak was in charge of carrying his gear.
Chapter 21 + 22
The film crew had gotten sick, it looked like the same thing Peak had but worse. Zopa then made them leave the camp knowing that they were not well enough to make it to the summit. Holly had also decided that she was done, she didn’t believe she could make it and was ready to go home. They would then leave the next day. During the night Zopa had told Josh that he thought Peak was ready for the summit. Peak was very excited about this but still concerned about Sun-jo. Peak thought that Josh only wanted to try and get Peak to the summit because he had a better chance at it. But then Josh told him he was only doing this as a favor to Zopa, as Sun-Jo’s father saved Josh’s life on one of his climbs. Later that day Peak got a phone call from his mother as she had received the letters that he had wrote her, Josh wasn’t very happy about how he wrote her. This had also brought up that Josh had gotten Peak’s letters but he just didn’t write back. This really hurt Peak, knowing that his own father didn’t even want to talk to him.
Chapters 23 + 24
Josh had decided that Peak was no longer going to the summit and he told his clients. As they were going to quit the expedition because they thought Josh was only going to make it so Peak was the only one to make it to the summit. Peak just walked in to hear this and was very upset. Josh then came up to him and Peak was thinking this was all a joke but Josh made it very clear. He then loaded up the truck with Zopa, Yogi and Yash, they would be meeting Sun-jo further up ahead to avoid any messy situations. Then all of a sudden the truck stopped, Peak looked at Zopa and asked what was going on he just looked at him and said “Plan C”.
Chapters 25 + 26
As they started up the mountain Team C would be going up the mountain - a very different route from Josh’s expedition. This route was also more difficult. While they were climbing up an ice wall Sun-Jo’s axe broke and no one could reach him as he was barely hanging on. Peak took a very big risk as he hooked on a rope not knowing if it could hold his weight. But he tried it and saved Sun-Jo’s life. One evening they had gotten word that they were sending more Chinese soldiers up the mountain in search of illegal climbers. The next day Zopa had been having a very hard time climbing the mountain, and as they made it to camp four he had decided he would not be going any higher. The plan would then be for Peak, Sun-jo, Yogi and Yash make it to the summit then Peak would cross into Nepal and go down that way.
Chapters 27 + 28
As they were climbing to camp six they had seen many corpses, this had freaked Peak out knowing that could be him. As they were climbing Peak had slipped and was just dangling by the ropes. He was very nervous but managed to save himself. As they kept getting closer to the summit Sun-jo wanted to stop. He didn’t think he could make it. Peak then stopped and let Sun-jo go first knowing he could make it. Peak didn’t even want to touch the summit pole, so then Sun-jo could be youngest person to climb Everest.
Chapters 29 + 30
On the way down Peak had gotten a call from captain Shek who was furious when he found out Sun-jo was in Nepal. But Peak could care less because Sun-jo was safe. When they got down to camp four Zopa had already gone down, but he did leave a note to Peak even though the plan was for Peak to cross into Nepal not Sun-jo. He thought that was very strange that he knew that he would chose his friends over himself. Peak then decided that he was not going to wait for Josh, he would be returning home for the twins birthday. On the way to the airport they ran into Zopa where Peak gave him the memory card from the camera with the footage of Sun-Jo’s climb. Once Peak got into New York he went straight home to the party, where he saw all of his very relived family. Holly was also there with her story about the youngest person to climb Mount Everest, Sun-jo.