No Summit Out Of Sight: The True Story Of The Youngest Person To Climb The Seven Summits

The ascent up Mount Denali proves the most physically challenging yet, and every step and decision counts. Jordan and his family fly into Anchorage in June and then take a smaller plane into the mountains. During the flight, the pilot acts as a tour guide, telling them all about the landscape and its history. When they arrive at the base of the mountain, they decide to hike up to the next camp and then take a break. Before leaving, they bury some food and tag it in such a way that the local ravens won’t be able to find it. Jordan, Paul, and Karen each have a sled, and their total supplies weigh more than 300 pounds. They carry enough food for a month, knowing that a long storm could trap them on the mountain. As they climb, they begin to hear the roars of avalanches around them, which makes Jordan nervous. During some portions of the climb, everyone attaches their ropes to one another. The sun never fully sets, and the climb gets increasingly steeper. Along the way, Jordan is stopped by a man who can’t believe how young he is. Jordan notices that the man has a prosthetic arm but doesn’t ask why, and his dad then tells him that he just met Aron Ralston, a man who famously got his arm stuck under a boulder in Utah and had to cut it off in order to escape and survive. Jordan also meets a 17-year-old boy who, like him, is going for the world record of youngest person to reach the seven summits and congratulates him on his accomplishments so far. Jordan gets a chance to take a break while his parents haul supplies up to the next camp, and then Jordan and his parents climb through the night in the dim sunlight. They traverse a section of the mountain filled with crevasses, and Jordan’s dad, in the lead, takes each step carefully, testing the ground with his poles. At the camp, Jordan sleeps soundly and awakes the next morning to news on the radio of a Russian man who was feared dead but was found on the mountain barely conscious. Considering everything he seen so far, Jordan realizes that there is a chance that he or his father or Karen could die.

Jordan, Paul, and Karen reach the Advanced Base Camp, one camp away from the final camp before the summit. Many people are there, and the camp has a medical tent and a helicopter pad. Jordan and his dad play a game of touch football with some of the other climbers, and the Russian man, who nearly died, turns up safely. Jordan almost loses his axe but finds it at another tent and retrieves it. Karen and Paul lecture Jordan about keeping track of his things, and he feels like he learned a valuable lesson. After waiting a couple of days for the winds to die down, the group sets off for High Camp. Jordan ascends independently for the first time and does so successfully, though he loses his footing at one point. His heart races, but Karen and Paul encourage him. Jordan and his parents then pass over the West Buttress headwall, a one-foot-wide trail that descends steeply for miles on both sides. They clip to one another and take care with each step, and Jordan tries to remain calm. When they reach High Camp at 17,200 feet, Jordan can’t believe how far he has come.

The next morning, the group begins the final climb to the summit, and Jordan uses his axe to keep himself stable along the way. During the last few feet of the climb, Jordan’s dad goes ahead and sets up extra anchors so that Jordan can make it up safely. Karen films Jordan climbing up onto the summit, and Jordan once again falls to the ground, crying. Paul and Karen cry too, and the pain of the climb washes away as Jordan feels the victory of his accomplishment. The view is incredible at 20,320 feet. Upon descending, Jordan and his parents are exhausted and irritable but make it back to Advanced Base Camp and sleep there for the night. When they reach the bottom of the mountain, they must wait another day for weather that will allow a plane to take them out. After this experience, Jordan feels like his fears and doubts are behind him and is ready for the next climb.

Jordan is 13 years old and starts middle school, where he gets involved in fighting for a more nutritious school lunch menu and joins a track team. His mother notices a change in him and comments that Mount Denali must have brought the man out in him, which makes Jordan happy to hear. He suggests to his dad that they tackle the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea, Indonesia, as the next mountain, and Karen begins arranging for permits and travel. She and Paul encourage Jordan to start practicing rock climbing and rappelling to prepare for the mountain, which requires a lot of it. The mountain is in the jungle and was recently closed for 10 years after terrorist threats left it unsafe. Before Jordan, Karen, and Paul leave for their trip, a terrorist bombing occurs in Jakarta, the city they planned to pass through. They reroute to skip the city altogether, and Jordan feels grateful for Karen’s hard work. They hear of a horrible accident, in which a family friend’s five-year-old child was killed while crossing the street, and Jordan decides to dedicate his climb to the boy.

Karen arranges for the group to fly to Bali instead of Jakarta, and they stay there for a few days, enjoying the sights, the ocean, and the bird and monkey sanctuaries. At the monkey sanctuary, a monkey steals a man’s glasses, and an attendant retrieves them from the monkey. The next move is to fly to New Guinea, which is hot, humid, and full of exotic plant life. Jordan, Paul, and Karen then take a small plane to Nabire, a village close to the mountain, and Jordan enjoys having his own room next to the ocean. They are told they must wait more than a week for a helicopter, and the man who has been assisting them, Patrick, tells them stories of the tribespeople in the jungle, who often stop passersby for payment or demand that they turn back. Jordan’s dad decides that waiting for a helicopter is probably best. One afternoon, Jordan watches some kids play a game like soccer with a ball made of trash tied up with string, and he realizes that they’re no different from kids anywhere else.

When the time comes to take the helicopter out to the mountain, the pilots have to turn back when a thick fog rolls in. The gold mine inside the mountain usually fends off the fog, but today luck was not on their side. Jordan is relieved, having worried about crashing in the jungle. The second attempt is successful, and when the group finally gets to the base camp on the mountain, Jordan looks toward the river by the goldmine and sees that it is brown and polluted. The group has the base camp to themselves and admires the view of a turquoise-colored lake. The next day, they start trekking up the mountain, which mostly involves climbing over boulders and up rock faces. Jordan loves the challenge and finds it more fun than other mountains he’s climbed. The most terrifying part is having to complete a Tyrolean traverse, which means using a rope to cross an open gap in the mountain. The gap is 80 feet wide, and Jordan follows his father across, listening to his and Karen’s words to keep him going. The group reaches the summit a couple of hours later, and Jordan achieves a world record for the youngest person to do so. He takes out a photograph of the boy who died and it flies into the wind, which seems like an appropriate send-off to Jordan. The climb back down is quicker and they make it back to base camp the same day they began. Patrick tells Karen and Jordan about how the goldmine is owned by a US company that doesn’t care about the land it is destroying. The local tribes fight against it and hope to work with the Indonesian government to have it closed down. It does not bring the local workers any profit, instead sending the money back overseas. Jordan decides that when he gets home, he will spread the word about the mine to bring awareness to the problem.