An author who holds a combined record for mountain climbing and surfing says he’s found more meaning in teaching and family, than in adventure. Francis Slakey is a professor of Physics at Georgetown. His new book, To the Last Breath, describes the challenges of becoming the first person to summit the highest peak on every continent, and to surf every ocean. But the story is also a memoir of how Slakey overcame his deep, personal isolation and learned to make meaningful connections with the people in his life.

To the Last Breath was published in May by Simon & Schuster.

Author Francis Slakey will give a presentation in Sitka at Kettleson Library Wednesday evening (6-27-12) at 7 PM.


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There is a wide gulf between what you might think “To the Last Breath” is about, and what it’s really about. The dust cover shows a lone climber making his way up and over a huge snowfield.

Often, this kind of book – and this kind of author – is about 110-percent ego.

Slakey is the first to admit that the person who achieved his so-called “surf and turf” record was a self-absorbed loser.

“It really was kind of shallow to begin with. I just wanted to be the first at something. I had these skill sets that I could paste together to do it, so why not give it a try? Over the course of years working on it, by the time it was done, the record didn’t even matter. It was everything that happened in between that made a difference.”

Listen to an extended interview with Francis Slakey.

To the Last Breath would not have been written without some kind of transformative experience on Slakey’s part. He spent much of his youth trying to separate himself from people. Writing a book would have been about the last thing he would do.

“Early in my life I had thought that I didn’t want any attachments whatsoever. I even established some rules: I would never get married, I would never have kids, never own a house, ‘cause all of those things make you a fixed point, make you attached. Over the course of the journey, all of that changed. Certainly what contributed to that point of view were the deaths I experienced when I was young.”

Slakey’s mother died of cancer when he was eleven years old. He and his two older brothers were raised by their father. It was male half of the Brady Bunch that never found its female counterpart. Later, as a teenager, Slakey allowed a friend to attempt a tricky mountain descent unaccompanied, while he opted to ride down the mountain. The friend fell, and subsequently died.

These experiences pushed Slakey into a kind of emotional withdrawal. Even as he studied, and later taught college Physics, and began work on his climbing record – typically pulling together logistical teams for major peaks like Mt. Everest – he was indifferent to his teammates, isolated, and alone.

Ironically, his long journey back also started on Everest. When his party stopped at a monastery for a blessing, a lama gave him an amulet. Its message would haunt him.

“He had etched on to the amulet some letters that were indecipherable. Initially, the scientist in me tossed it aside – literally. I got back home and threw it in a sock drawer and forgot about it. Over the course of the journey it becomes a bigger and bigger part of my life, and I become obsessed with trying to translate it, and I do eventually figure out what it means.

Disclosing what the amulet actually says would be a spoiler. If you’ve seen “The Wizard of Oz” you probably already understand much of the lama’s message: Oz gave Dorothy and her companions nothing that they did not already have.

Now a changed person, Slakey no longer turns his back on the undergraduates in his Physics classes at Georgetown. He teaches classes called Science and Society: Global Challenges, and Shaping National Science Policy. He wants to jumpstart their engagement in the world and in others. You might say this is his new Everest.

“Part of the challenge for me now is the classroom, trying to pass on to students what I’ve learned about the world. So I’ve really thrown myself into my teaching, and that’s a critical thing. Seeing students light up, and succeed, and get out there in the world and do things is what gets my attention – that’s what the thrill is for me now.”

Slakey is in Sitka to visit his former freshman roommate from Georgetown, who owns a business in town. Following his Alaska side trip, Slakey will give talks on The Last Breath at other venues in the Northwest, including the Microsoft campus.