In the remote mountain town of Alder Creek, twelve-year-old Maya Chen dreams of becoming the first girl to summit Mount Kestrel—the peak that claimed her father's life three years ago. Armed only with his worn climbing journal and stubborn determination, she trains in secret while battling grief, a skeptical community, and her own paralyzing fear of heights. When a sudden storm traps her halfway up the mountain, Maya must confront the truth about her father's final climb. The Uphill Climb is a moving story of courage, loss, and the discovery that the hardest summits are the ones within ourselves.
