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

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Summary: BORING SELF-INDULGENT DRIVEL
Review: As another woman who has actually reached the summit of Mt. Everest, I found this book to be nothing more than self-indulgent "New Age" drivel. Gammelgaard offers no insight into why the disaster happened and virtualy ignores the other climbers who were on Everest that day. The book has none of the gripping suspense of Into Thin Air and none of the factual reporting of The Climb. I'm happy Gammelgaard survived but she should turn her attentions to things other than writing. One of the worst books I've yet to read!

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Summary: Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest ..
Review: This book draws a basic emotional response from the people I know who have read it so far - they either love it or hate it. And an emotional response is precicely what sets this book apart from two others, Into Thin Air and The Climb, written about the same expedition. In Climbing High, Ms. Gammelgaard does not get into the hows or whys, the could haves or should haves, or the blaming and explaining and of the other two. Climbing High isn't a book about the entire Everest expedition and the author doesn't try to tell everyone else's story or relay other people's intentions or motives. It is a tunnel vision book about what it took for one person to reach the summit; about what one person saw and thought and felt and experienced before, during, and after climbing Mt. Everest. I found the author's honesty about herself and her abilities courageous and refreshing. Her description of the physical effort and sheer will required to achieve her personal goal, "to the summit and safe return" didn't leave much to the imagination. Written almost as a journal, this book describes climbing the world's highest mountain while giving the reader a clear and uncompromising view into the soul of a strong and determined single woman. A woman whose achievements speak for themselves.

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Summary: Wonderful....but read after you've read Krakauer and Boukree
Review: I'd read all the reviews of this book, which for the most part didn't sound too great, but I got the book anyway because I wanted all the information I could get and I am so glad I did! This is not the book to read for facts and critique - this is the book to read for how it feels to prepare for and then accomplish climbing Everest during this terrible tragedy. It is very personal and therefore I could connect with what it must have been like - connect from the heart level - not the head. And I disagree about it being arrogant or self-centered in a negative way. On the contrary. The deepest humility is to expose one's humanity with all its positive qualites and flaws and that is exactly what she does. She doesn't analyze anyone, she simply states her reaction to events as she felt them. It is a humble book - not because she wasn't determined or proud of what she did - but because she only spoke from her point of view. For the most part, she did not present her analysis of what happened. Her critiques are tempered with great understanding of how difficult climbing Everest is and how fallible we are as human beings. It is realistic and wonderful. I really understood the tragedy on a deep level and it is thanks to Lene Gammelgaard. Anyone can tell you what people should have done. It took Lene to tell us how it really felt to one climber - herself. She does not presume to speak for or judge the others. So, I loved it, and recommend it to anyone who is willing to connect with their own triumphs and ultimate powerlessness.

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Summary: Lene's book is thinner than the air on top of Everest
Review: Despite the intense worldwide interest in the '96 Everest tragedy, it took 3 years for this book (the first actually written on the subject) to find an American publisher. There's a reason -- it's really a terrible book. Lene Gammelgaard presents herself as a self-absorbed, bitchy, shallow person who really has nothing to say about the people, the climb, or the tragedy. She provides no insights into the "big issues" (e.g., why people climb, the impacts of commercial expeditions and amateur climbers) or the specific events of these expeditions. Where she could offer unique perspectives -- the only living witness of a Fisher-Boukreev conversation that is mentioned in all other books, insights about the climb, return, and "huddle" -- her writing never advances beyond the emotional depth of a fitness trainer. "I know I can do it! " become her one size fits all answer to every situation she encounters. She barely seems to have been aware of the existence of her other team members, who essentially are invisible in the book. Even when she gets her claws out (as when she makes a few bitchy remarks about Sandy Hill Pittman), she doesn't really have anything to say. If Into Thin Air and The Climb still left you interested in Everest, better to move around to the other side of the mountain and buy a "Mallory" book.

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Summary: Dissapointing after Into Thin Air and The Climb
Review: After being nearly obsessed with Into Thin Air and The Climb, I eagerly awaited the latest book from Lene (I also lived in and speak Danish -- an added bonus). However, I found Lene's chronicle pretty weak, with little background or insight in the writing. This book was written more like a journal without analysis and should have been billed as such. For gaining insight into the state of mind for Lene, it was interesting. For better writing and deeper analysis about the 96 tragedy, stick to the other 2 books.

Rating:
Summary: A Major disappointment
Review: Like several others who have reviewed this book, I found it a total waste of time. I was able to read the entire book in one day and I kept thinking, "it's got to get better," but it never did. There is no sense of what drives this woman, no personal history in which to "get to know her" and certainly nothing is added to the Everest story, either historically or in the context of the '96 tragedy. I found it shallow and filled with exclamation points that made no point. While I certainly understand and accept the intuitive mind and its differences from a more analytical perspective, this book did little in the way of informing me about the mountain or the author. Instead it seems trite and superficial and filled with pithy statements and insinuations which discredit her perspective. I am, however, thrilled that she made the summit and returned safely and that it fulfilled a personal quest she had. I only wish she hadn't written so poorly about it.

Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: I had "high" hopes about this book and really was quite disappointed by it. After having read "Into Thin Air" and "The Climb" (the first of which I thought was excellent, the second less well written but gripping nonetheless) I was anxious to read Lene's account of the same story. I had met her at a local bookstore where she did a slide show presentation and book signing and she is definitely a strong and impressive woman face to face. But I thought her book was poorly written (or poorly translated) and did not convey any of the drama or nail-biting suspense that the others did. Her thoughts jump around from sentence to sentence and never seem to stick together well enough to make what I consider a good read. I'm glad I didn't waste the energy to carry it around with me on my recent Everest trek as I was going to do. I probably would have left it in one of the villages only to leave it to another disappointed reader. For a beautiful and well-written mountaineering adventure from a woman's perspective, read Arlene Blum's "Annapurna: A woman's place on Top."

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Summary: Self aggrandizing psycho-babble,
Review: The book is poorly written with a lot of name dropping and gossipy insinuations. Into Thin Air, Climb, High Exposure are all better written and far more interesting. I think she figures if she refers to the "mother goddess" enough times she can pass the book off as feminist treatise. Lucky for Gammelgaard, she's a better climber than writer, or she'd be just be another fossil on the mountain. Don't waste your money.

Rating:
Summary: Self-absorbed garbage
Review: Of all that has been written about the 1996 Everest tragedy of errors, this is the weakest piece. It consists mainly of diary excerpts and the author's commentaries on them. The only insights for the reader are into the mind of an enormously driven, self-indulgent, and self-absorbed person. Reading this book is a waste of time and money.

Rating:
Summary: Just an attempt to cash in on the '96 trajedy.
Review: Everything that needs to be said was said in "Into Thin Air" and "The Climb."