Peak

Peak is a novel for young adults by the American writer Roland Smith, published in 2007.

Its central figure is Peak Marcello, a fourteen-year-old who lives in New York with his mother and has made a name for himself by climbing skyscrapers and other structures in the city, which is what brings him to the attention of the police. His father, a climber who has been absent for years, appears with an offer that would make the charges go away and would put Peak on Everest with a commercial expedition, where a successful ascent would make him the youngest person to reach the summit. The novel follows the expedition: the weeks of walking in, the camps, the weather and the decisions that get made when somebody else's ambition is paying for the trip, and the climbing is described closely enough that the reader can follow what the expedition is doing and why each stage of it is dangerous. It won the National Outdoor Book Award in its children's category.

Smith has written many novels for young readers about wildlife and wild places, and this one was followed by a sequel.