In 1996, twelve climbers died on Everest in one of the worst disasters in the mountain's history…We were at the same altitude, in the same location, they had been in when they died. We had the same experience levels they had, the same concerns for safety, the same professional and personal ambitions. We had the same amount of time and the same amount of oxygen. But we also had one thing they didn't have. They had clear weather going up, and only abstract worries that a storm might develop. We already had the storm.



This moving and inspirational account presents Phil and Susan Ershler, the first couple in history to scale the fabled Seven Summits. In mountains on every continent they learned to trust each other and to put their lives in each other's hands.



Outwardly, Phil and Susan had little in common. Phil was a professional mountain guide (the first American to summit Everest from the north) who had never revealed his darkest secret: that he suffered from Crohn's disease, a debilitating lifelong illness. Susan was a corporate executive who, at the age of thirty-six, had neither hiked nor climbed. But drawn together by their life-affirming zest for challenge, Susan and Phil formed a true soul connection. Yet from the moment they set the goal of climbing the Seven Summits, that connection would be tested in unexpected ways. Colon cancer, prostate cancer, and a months-long misunderstanding strained-and ultimately strengthened-their marriage.



This is the story of Phil and Susan's partnership. It is a love story, an adventure story, a story of success against all odds. Above all, it is the story of two people who refused to back down in quest of a seemingly impossible dream.