The Everest Trilogy (The Contest, The Climb, and The Summit) is a 2002 Gordon Korman Middle Grade Literature series. The trilogy starts by following young climbers undergoing Training from Hell to qualify for three places in a corporate-sponsored expedition to climb Mount Everest with Ethan Zaph, the youngest person to climb Mount Everest to date. The next two books cover the climb, with plenty of things turning out unexpectedly. While the climbers are a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits, the trilogy is among Korman's more serious work, with lots of Shown Their Work details about the mechanics and dangers of mountain climbing, family drama, and the prologue of the first book making it clear that one of the kids will die on the mountain.
Tropes in the trilogy:
- Acrofatic: Plump Sherpa Babu is a tireless worker who can move at amazing speeds in a crisis.
- Big Brother Worship: Dominic Alexis idolizes his older brother Chris (who has already climbed with Ethan Zaph before) and is determined to climb Mount Everest alongside of Chris.
- Dwindling Party: Throughout the first book, every few days, a few more kids are singled out as being at the bottom of the pack and cut from the training contest, their dreams of climbing Mount Everest crushed. A few others are sent home for medical reasons, such as Cameron and Bryn, who both break a few bones in bad falls, and Joey, who is discovered to have nasal passages that are too narrow for safe breathing at high altitudes.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Sammi is constantly zoned out listening to rock-and-roll on her Walkman, which once causes her to not realize that an avalanche has breezed through the base camp until several minutes later.
- The Mole: Someone involved in the contest and expedition is feeding embarrassing stories to a tabloid paper. It's Tilt Crowley, who initially does it because it is the only way for a boy as poor as him to buy good climbing gear, but then does it to undermine his rival Dominic.
- Scaling the Summit: The series focuses on a team of climbers training for an ascent of Mount Everest.
- Spanner in the Works: Ethan Zaph decides to quit the expedition in favor of a different climbing trip right after his teammates have been picked, leading to the team being restructured and several main characters who were being sent home to be selected for the climb after all.
- There Was a Door: Mrs. Alexis is annoyed at how her mountaineer husband and sons like to climb out second-floor windows to reach the ground rather than going down the stairs and out the door.
- Two Girls to a Team: Bryn and Sammy hope to both make the team and do the climb together. They succeed, but Bryn is then injured and replaced by Tilt.
- Too Dumb to Live: The adults express this opinion in a horrified and angry fashion after learning that Bryn sleepwalks and never told anyone but Sammy, even though they are going on a mountain climbing trip and will be sleeping near lots of cliff faces. They are right to feel this way, since Bryn does walk off a cliff and is lucky to survive.
- Treachery Cover Up: In the third book, Cap learns that Tilt Crowley has been spying on the expedition for a tabloid magazine and tried to sabotage Dominic to make him turn back so that Tilt would be the youngest person to make the summit. However, Cap keeps this secret after a remorseful Tilt dies while trying to rescue Dominic.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Perry is a well-done nephew guy, as he feels unqualified to climb Mount Everest (an opinion many of the people he is competing alongside of share) and is terrified of the mountain, but he is convinced that his famous and climbing-obsessed Cool Uncle would never understand if he quit, and so he perseveres throughout training and beyond. Surprisingly, his uncle is completely understanding and sympathetic once he learns how Perry feels, but by then, now that he feels like he has a choice, Perry has decided he wants to see the expedition through.
- What a Piece of Junk: In Book 2, the expedition briefly travels in a The Korean War surplus helicopter with visible duct tape repairs. Contrary to Tilt's snide prediction, it does actually manage to lift off and take them to their destination.
