Mark the Mountain Guide author, Mark Seaton, is a British mountain guide who lives with his wife and children in the Chamonix valley. He guides climbers and skiers in the French, Swiss and Italian Alps. Seaton's accomplishments as a professional mountain guide include the first complete unassisted British guided ascent of the Eiger Nordwand with his client Charles Sherwood in 2007. In 2008, Seaton & Sherwood teamed up again to complete a traverse of Mont Blanc via an ascent of Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey, the most difficult 4000-m summit in the Alps. In 1996, Mark led Don Planner, the first blind man to climb
Crowders Mountain in height. The cliffs of Crowders Mountain are popular among rock climbers. Rock climbing is no longer permitted on The Pinnacle. Hiking trails lead to both summits, from which it is possible to view the skyscrapers of nearby Charlotte, North Carolina, on a clear day. One of the first FM radio stations in North Carolina, Gastonia's WGNC-FM, erected a transmission tower on Crowders Mountain in the late 1940s. Today three radio towers are located on the mountain. The transmitters are located within a plot of land on the summit that remains privately owned. In addition to commercial radio, the towers