Climbing High : A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy

Rating:
Summary: Provocative Albeit Self-Absorbed Account of Her Climb!
Review: As someone who has watched with dismay as rich Yuppies searching for the ultimate 'edge' adventure have been allowed to buy their way into the "Everest experience", I was quite interested in this personal account by one such adventurer lucky enough to survive one of the most disastrous accidents on the mountain. Based on her narrative, my own conclusion was that most of them simply had no business being that high on a mountain like Everest where there is no room for error, no forgiveness shown, and no way out once things go awry. Still, this young woman is an interesting combination of gung-ho enthusiasm and thoughtful consideration, although one wonders if she had a potential book deal in mind when she bought her way into the "adventure' in the first place. After all, there are a lot of sister women out there willing to buy into this pseudo-"bought and paid for adventure experience" nonsense. Of all things, this book reminds me of the recent pseudo-adventure memoir by Jon Katz, "Running To The Mountain". At least Jon had the sense to leave the crampons home and settle for a broken down cabin to repair in the Adirondacks.

There seem to be two schools of thought in the reviews for this book. The first seems to be a single-minded endorsement of the experience full of the "yahoo!" Nike-like "just do it" credo that such hardy denizens of faux-macho tri-athletic events and celebrators of philosophies of personal punishment parading as self-discovery are wont to believe. I trust all of these ardent adventurers have never been to war, and come from backgrounds of affluence and comfort. The search for "edge experience" appear to be drowning in pools of pathetic self-absorption and petulant self-importance, as these otherwise safe and banal souls seem desperate for the ultimate experience like author Stephen Crane's fabled "Red Badge Of Courage". Why not just get somebody to take potshots at you? In this sense it seems more an expression of an immature inchoate longing for validation as a worthwhile adult than a native yearn for adventure. Of course, there are exceptions, and as far as I am concerned the author of the book may be one, given her own careful consideration of the risks and the care with which she approached the whole venture.

The other predominant school of criticism seems to enthusiastically denigrate the way in which such foolhardy amateurs have deliberately endangered both themselves and their Expedition colleagues by venturing into realms they have no business climbing into. It isn't a coincidence that most of the people expressing these views seem to be both older and more experienced. Those of us who have been deliberately shot at by other human beings who meant us malice and harm rarely find a need to express our sense of adventure afterward. Life has already shown us that aspect of existence, and driving in traffic provides all of the elements of risk taking without any need to backpack into the rugged interior of Nepal. Still, as someone always fascinated by mountaineering and rock climbing, I hail those with the yearning and the willingness to experience their own innate curiosity by venturing up the slope and through the craggy precipices in search of whatever demons as propel them there.

My real problem with the book is that like many other such well-organized contrived commercial pseudo-adventures, it allows the wealthy amateurs who can buy into the expedition to stand in the shadows of titans like Tenzing, Hilary, Mallory and Irving who sometimes struggled and even crawled toward the heights with their own hands and feet, often carrying their own provisions, quite unlike these pampered affluent "clients" who expect to be deferred to and helped by their "guides", and who seem to expect to be given the experience of reaching the pinnacle on the virtual backs of others because they have "paid for it". Such ideas and expectations not only vulgarize the quest for excellence into a craven management slogan but also give adventurers a bad name. In that sense, let the disaster on Everest give fair warning. When all else is said and done, man is still just an inconsequential visitor to the roof of the world, an intruder perilously perched on the quicksilver hope for good luck and good weather, and no one is safe if and when Mother Nature suddenly turns [ugly]. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY
Review: If you feel you are interested in reading this book I suggest you save your money and wait till you find it at a garge sale for a quarter. Then read it only when it's one of those days where you just can't find anything else to read.

She claimed to have been a mountain climber before Everest, but yet she had to ask other people what she needed to purchase for that climb. I would think that a "Mountain Climber" would have known what to purchase as far as equipment needed.

She talks of this Zen responsibility then turns around to inform the readers of how Sandy Pittman is having an affair going on in her tent, of how Anatoli Boukreev's girlfriend "tip-toes" each afternoon to his tent to spend the night with him. I then ask myself, I wonder whose tent she was "tip-toeing" to, with the "sexy green underware" she speaks of in her book. Hmm?

The book has nothing to do with Mountain Climbing if that is what you are interested in.

Rating:
Summary: Stick with Krakauer!
Review: What should have been insightful, educated insight into one the higher accomplishments of a human, turned into a self absorbed effort at self affirmation and ego stroking. Don't waste a nickel on this one.

Rating:
Summary: All About Lene
Review: After reading Into Thin Air, I have read everything I could get my hands on regarding the 96 Everest tragedy. I have turned into an "Armchair Everest Junkie". Lene's perspective on her survival was of particular interest to me because I am such a chicken when it comes to taking risks. This book was more about who Lene liked and who she thought little of. There was very little credible information that shed light on what she went through. I found it distasteful that she took shots at those whom she accompanied and collectively staked their lives on the bid for the Everest summit. True, Anatoli was a fine mountaineer and human being but he was the only other person she respected. That pretty much sums up the book!

Rating:
Summary: wrong category !
Review: This is not a book about climbing - which I found kinda funny for a book about mt. Everest; this book is about ms. Gammelgaard proving to herself "she could be the first nordic woman to set foot" on Chomolungma - big deal ! So maybe you can call this a tale of a driven, achieving lady who singlemindedly pursues a goal, but you will learn nothing about what happened in may, 1996 or about what being on mt. Everest is like; not even close to Krakauer's or Boukreev's books on the same topic: buy those instead.

Rating:
Summary: Simply put, this is an overdramatic book!
Review: Gammelgarrd is a very courageous person and one must respect her for that. However, her writing style, simply perplexes me. She writes in a strange personal fashion that over dramatically describes her Everest experience as well as her mental perparation for the climb. If you can stomach her writing stlyle and get into this book, you will enjoy it. However if her writing style annoys you, you will not enjoy this book. Some concepts and thought patterns will be over the average reader's head. I can say that after reading all the 1996 Everest books, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is still the best.

Rating:
Summary: Damning indictment of the Author... by the Author
Review: First of all Lene Gammelgaard is not a writer, that's evident within the first 10 pages. Had she left out the phrases "Sagarmatha Environmental Expedition" and "Sagarmatha, Mother Goddess of the Earth", the only text left would have been a few pages of self hype and a dozen or so boring pictures pasted between hardcover.

What she does manage to do though is pen a pretty convincing and damning indictment of her own involvement in one of the worst mountaineering disasters in history.

Several passages in this book lead me to believe that Scott Fischer had bit off more than he could chew by signing up several expedition members of questionable ability. Once he had their money, he didn't or wouldn't say "No" to their plans.

She was told "No, she couldn't go." by the business manager. Was that because they hadn't received her payment? Or was it because they already had enough "inexperienced" climbers signed on?

Once into the climb, she seems obsessed in proving that she was a strong climber. Constantly comparing her physical condition with the rest of the team members. Her obsession with going without oxygen wasn't nixed until late into the climb, which also raises questions about Scott Fischer's judgement in leading her to believe she would even be allowed to attempt such an obviously suicidal stunt.

Does this "seasoned" mountain climber not own a watch or an altimeter? Not once did she seem to know what time it was nor how high she was. Several documented accounts of the climb have her as one of the last members of Fischer's team to summit on the 10th of May. She doesn't know what time she reached the top. Was it 2:30 or was it 1:30? try after 3:00! Why on earth did it take this, "by her own account", superbly conditioned climbing machine this long to summit? She was using oxygen and had planned and prepared herself to go without. I wonder.

Once getting on the summit, she unpacked sponsor logos and produced a paper with a headline heralding her success. In addition to the impromptu party she threw for herself while on top she also conned a team member into taking off his gloves and snapping a picture. Taking off your gloves at 29,000 feet can cost your fingers. What on earth was she thinking? She obviously wasn't.

Read how many times she had to "catch-up" with groups that had left her behind and you begin to understand how terribly slow she moved. What we will never know for sure though is how many lives would have been saved had she been turned around at 1:00, summit or not.

At the start of the book she praised herself for "being picked by Scott because of her uncanny ability to make a team function together". Before the summit bid she announces that this is an "individual" thing, that she can't count on others for help and that they shouldn't count on her. Mountain climbing is just you and the mountain. Her butt would still be on the mountain if the rest of the team thought like she did.

If you're looking for a book about mountain climbing adventure, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for more documentation and answers about the May 1996 tragedy on Mt. Everest, you will find several interesting things in this account. Unfortunately you have to put up with someone who is more than a little self absorbed, honking their horn about being the "first Scandinavian woman" to climb Mt. Everest.

Lene Gammelgaard obviously doesn't know what responsibility is, and she takes none for the disaster she calls a climb.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I was so looking forward to reading this book. I wanted to read about a woman's experience on Everest, particularly during the 1996 season so well written about by others (particularly Krakauer). How disappointed and let down can one be!

I agree with the climber below (Gabrielle). I have never, not never will climb mountains, but I founbd this to be self-indulgent and full of new age psycho-babble.

I found her atttitude towards others patronising, especially in an excrutiating couple of exchanges with Boukreev....one where she offers the "poor boy" from Kazakhstan rolls of film, beciuse she is so liberally endowed by her sponsors.

In fact the whole book read like one written to satisfy some sponsorship deal. It was lazily written - much barely edited journal writings.

Didn't add anything to my knowledge of or voracious interest in Everest and other high peaks, and doesn't capture the "women's experience" as well as, for example, Arlene Blum in "Annapurna".

Am still searching for something terrific by a woman climber on Everest!

Rating:
Summary: SELF SERVING JOURNAL IS AN INSULT TO CLIMBERS
Review: Like many others who have found this book totally self serving, I am one who found Gammelgaard's words introverted to the point of insulting. She is obviously one who captured the summit with a trophy in mind. I also have found no evidence that Scott Fischer's expedition WAS an "environmental expedition," as it has been called repeatedly. Standing this book next to Jon Krakauer's is like walking on your head, it's pointless. Lene Gammelgaard's main motive was to bag the top and become the "celebrity" she claimed to have become back home. Her writing, though a journal format, is childish and of amateur quality. One would hope a book about the Everest tragedy and the mountain itself, no matter who the author is, would offer a profile on the history of the region or something to make it interesting. Gammelgaard should have done some research to augment her own experience. Yet she simply punched out some weak profound sentences and came up flat. I applaud her for other life experiences and contributions to her homeland's society but as with other climbers in that fateful year, Gammelgaard has done more damage to the sport of climbing than she did good. Apparently she is working on a second book. I suggest she spare us or make it a children's book.

Rating:
Summary: This is not a book about climbing Mt. Everest...
Review: ...it's about being "proud of being the first Danish woman to do so" - this sentence is the whole content of the book. The most dramatic climbing season on the tallest mountain on the planet is nothing but a mere background to the great self esteem drama Gammelgaard is going thru (and sharing with us - in lots of details). Krakauer and Boukreev run circles around this lady, definitely NOT recommended