"Together on Top of the World" | Tale of first couple of summits

"Together on Top of the World: The Remarkable Story of the First Couple to Climb the Fabled

Seven Summits"

by Phil and Susan Ershler, with Robin Simons

Warner Books, 294 pp., $24.99

Even the most agreeable marriage sometimes faces challenges: clashing careers, communication mishaps, lingering illnesses.

For Susan and Phil Ershler of Kirkland, those challenges included real mountains. They were the first couple to climb the Seven Summits, the highest peak on each of the seven continents. Their recently released book, "Together on Top of the World," details not just their treks to the tops of mountains but their adjustment to married life.

By the time they met in 1991, Susan and Phil were mature adults — Phil Ershler was an internationally renowned mountain climber. Susan was a dynamic sales manager.

To impress Susan, who loved boating and water-skiing, Phil secretly took early spring water-skiing lessons on Lake Sammamish. The water was so cold, Phil and the instructor were the only ones on the lake. Susan changed clothes five times before their first date.

Because she wanted to understand Phil's passion for mountain-climbing, Susan went along on one of his guide trips to Mount Rainier. Phil told her something that became a personal mantra for her: "Sue, just keep walking." Susan did, and was hooked by the sport.

As the Ershlers write about some of their Seven Summit climbs, they fill in their backstory, one full of challenges even bigger than the ones they faced outdoors.

Phil has quietly endured Crohn's disease since he was a teenager. It is a debilitating illness that causes stomach cramps and diarrhea. He took up hiking and climbing because he feels better when he's in the mountains.

One of Phil's biggest challenges has been to learn to share his physical ailments with his wife, including his diagnosis of colon cancer. He nearly died before a second surgery repaired a twisted intestine — the reader feels his returning confidence as he drives himself to work out so he can return to his beloved mountain climbing.

Susan learns that communication on mountaintops isn't always what it seems. They don't summit Everest on their first attempt, and she blurts out her feelings of failure. Phil takes her comments, meant for herself, personally. For weeks they tiptoe around this miscommunication.

Susan eventually discovers that her passions in life have changed. She wants to empower other people and leaves her successful sales career to become an inspirational speaker. She has recognized that fear of new things is holding her back. She writes, "I began to think that fear is an intrinsic part of every dream, that overcoming fear is part of what makes the achievement so fulfilling."

The book is a duet of personal vignettes. The couple's stories are interwoven, giving individual viewpoints of the same incidents. Though the typeface changes to indicate the voice change, it is sometimes confusing to understand whose story is being told.

But in the main, this is a fun, inspiring story. There are hidden gems in this book that will delight readers, such as learning that Phil's customers have donated desks to a village school in Africa.

And there's the discovery that people do change. Phil learns to communicate on a personal level. When he develops prostate cancer, he becomes more open with Susan and with their families.

By the time the couple reaches the top of the seventh peak — Everest — you feel as if you've climbed the mountain, too.