SAAD UTTUNGACHI

Youre either cruisin or youre bummin so you might as well cruise.--Scott Fischer Mountain climber Scott Fischers mantra would lead him to scale the highest and most treacherous peaks on earth. Best known as one of the guides who perished near the summit of Mount Everest during the tragic spring of 1996 Scott Fischer became for many an iconic symbol of audacity hubris and the limits of human endurance. But to those who knew him well Scott was much more than an action figure at the heart of a modern-day cautionary tale. Now in this vivid candid biography Robert Birkby--one of Scotts close friends--gives us a fascinating in-depth portrait of who Scott Fischer really was and what led him to the top of the world. As a teenage athlete growing up in New Jersey Scott felt a restless drive to reach beyond the limits of his suburban environment. He discovered the freedom he sought during summers in the rugged mountains of Wyoming. From Alaska to the Soviet Union from the granite walls of Yosemite to the punishing storms of the Himalayas Scotts achievements are hair-raising inspiring and always exhilarating--a relentless quest for new highs that builds inexorably to the rendezvous with disaster on Everest. Scotts life was a journey filled with adventures deep friendships and dramatic successes and failures in the obscure reaches of some of the worlds most beautiful and dangerous places. A captivating homage to a man who eagerly went where few dare to go Mountain Madness is an extraordinary account of courage passion and extreme living.