Highest and Hardest: A Mountain Climber’s Lifetime Odyssey to the Top of the World

I had already added seven books to my library written by professional mountaineers before beginning to read Highest and Hardest. So, I wondered if this would be worth adding to the specific category collection. It is.

The writer-climber Chris Kopczynski was first fascinated with, and attracted to, climbing when he was a teenager: “I never stopped thinking about the mountains.” Early in the account, one wonders exactly why engaging in such risky and potentially deadly activities – “Life, as we know it on earth, is not sustainable above 17,000 feet.” – was important to him. As a young man, he made it his goal to climb some of the highest mountains on earth. Later, Kopcyzynski elects to climb the highest peak on all seven continents.

Eventually, Kopcyzynski well details the case for exploring the places on earth that few humans will ever see. It’s much like the argument in favor of exploring space. Without challenges, the human species might wilt away into nothingness.

Kopcyzynski’s account is of a man who was rewarded with successes and failures in relationships and life. It’s a tale of a survivor who lived out his dream; a man who today happily lives “in thin hair.”