To the Last Breath

A Memoir of Going to Extremes

customer reviews

A journey to the most extreme points on Earth and deep inside the human spirit
Before Georgetown physics professor Francis Slakey set out to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean, he had shut himself off from other people. His lectures were mechanical; his relationships were little more than ways to fill the evenings. But as his journey veered dangerously off course, everything about him began to change.
A gripping adventure of the body and mind, To the Last Breath depicts the quest that leads Slakey around the globe, almost takes his life, challenges his fiercely held beliefs, and opens his heart. The scientist in Slakey explores the history of Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed Antarctica expedition, the technology of climbing, and the geophysics of waves. But it is the challenges he endures and the people he encounters—a Lama who gives him a mysterious amulet, a life-or-death choice atop Everest, an ambush at gunpoint in Indonesia, a head-on collision in the high desert—that culminate in a moving lesson about what it means to be human.

Choose a format:

Book details:

Simon & Schuster |
272 pages |
ISBN 9781439198957 |
May 2012

$28.99 List Price

Buy from another retailer:

see more

Praise

“

”

“Intrepid Francis Slakey scales each continent's highest peak, surfs every ocean, and lives to tell the tale in To The Last Breath, an exhilarating thrill show for armchair adventurers who prefer air conditioning to thin air. ”

– Vanity Fair

“When a Georgetown physics professor saw his existence becoming mundane, he actually did something about it. This exciting, moving memoir documents his quest to climb the highest mountains and surf every ocean on earth. ”

– Entertainment Weekly “Must List”

“A dramatic account of summiting Everest, getting ambushed in Indonesia and enduring isolation and spiritual deprivation in Antarctica. . . . To the Last Breath is a moving tale of self-discovery, right to the last word. ”

– People

“Francis Slakey’s exciting, perilous adventures from El Cap to the Indian Ocean are at first just a stunt--the cool, calculated goal of a hardcore scientist. But when the acts of grace and heroism of others open his heart, To... ”

– Norman Ollestad, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy For The Storm

“To The Last Breath is, in a word, breathtaking. Dr. Slakey takes you with him as he blasts through blizzards and dangles by frayed lines to get to the top of the highest mountains. He also adds the science of surfing to your body... ”

– Lucinda Franks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of My Father’s Secret War

“Francis Slakey must have nine lives. In a book that is compelling and insightful from the get-go, Slakey takes the reader along on his adventures as he comes to terms with his mother’s death and learns what really matters in... ”

– Washington Post

“An adrenaline shot of a book.”

– The Week

“More than another tale of high octane machismo.”

– New York Times

“A love story, an athletic journey, an introspective process of discovery.”

– Shelf Awareness

“Part adventure travel, part call to action for anyone who cares about making a better world.”

– Molly Brown, Kirkus Reviews

‹ ›

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

BEYOND THE SKY

I am out of balance. I hang dangerously off center but I’m oblivious, until some dim awareness of the world shakes me awake.

I lift my head up slightly and look toward my feet. Sure enough, I’m not flat. My body is sloping downward and I can barely see the tips of my toes in the faint moonlight. This wouldn’t be anything to worry about if it weren’t for the fact that I’m on a cot pinned to a sheer granite wall two thousand feet above the valley floor.

My shifting around was enough to wake my climbing...