Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

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.

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."

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.

This is yet another perspective of the 1996 Everest tragedy by a survivor of the fiasco. Written in journal style, the author at times frames her thoughts in a staccato, stream of consciousness, rambling fashion, coupled with new age psycho babble. At other times, she intones in a pseudo profound way about Everest. The author comes off as a silly, vapid individual.

It is interesting to note that while the author refers to Scott Fischer's expedition (of which she was a member) as an environmental one with a mission to clean up the debris on Everest left by expeditioners, nowhere does she state what it was that those on Scott Fischer's expedition were going to do to ameliorate the mess on the mountain. While she climbs up and down Everest, acclimatizing herself, she does not appear to be doing anything that remotely resembles conservation or clean up. Nor does she indicate any affirmative interest in doing anything constructive to that end.

She intones about the consequences of hubris up on the mountain. Yet, she, who had never before climbed Everest, was insisting that she would climb it without oxygen. She was even getting into arguments about it with Scott Fischer, who had the sense to tell her she would be climbing with oxygen. As it turned out, he was right. She could barely make it with oxygen. She should thank her lucky stars that he was so insistent that she climb with oxygen, otherwise she, too, would probably have died on Everest.

She also incessantly refers to herself as a mountain climber, but she didn't even know what gear she should take, relying on the recommendations of others, and then criticizing their recommendations when they ran counter to her expectations. It is clear, no matter how she wants to dress up her reasons for climbing Everest, that it was just a trophy mountain for her. She hoped that climbing Everest would gild the path for her to some psuedo celebrity status in her country of Denmark.

Her take on Anatoli Boukreev is much more sympathetic than was Jon Krakauer's in his book Into Thin Air. She saw Anatoli as an asset and misunderstood because of his taciturn demeanor. Anatoli comes off very well in this account. In fact, her take on him is much more sympathetic than her take on Scott Fischer, in whom she was apparently disappointed as an expedition leader. I must say if she acted the way she described in her book, then Scott Fischer, who was a true mountaineer, must of been heartily sick of her bravado about climbing Everest without oxygen. Her inflated sense of self is truly staggering at times. When she talks about hubris, she would do well to look no further than her own mirror.

Notwithstanding all of this, her account has some merit. As an Everest junkie, I found parts of her journal to be of interest, which is why I rated it three stars, rather than two.

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!

The paradoxical nature of reality is that everyone perceives it differently yet everyone thinks that their version is the "correct" one. If you've read any of the reports on the tragedy on Mt. Everest in May 1996, it's evident that no one person knows the whole story yet each person on the mountain that day has their own version of what happened. I was hopeful that this book would add an insightful new perspective, but I was immensely disappointed. Lene Gammelgaard's account is nothing but an exercise in self-aggrandizement. She repeatedly suggests that the tragedy was the result of too many amateurs buying their way onto the mountain and putting everyone else in jeopardy. Undoubtedly true, but Gammelgaard is being hypocritical at best. Her silly "spirit of the mountain" claptrap, foolhardy demand that she be allowed to summit without oxygen and lack of familiarity with some of the most basic equipment mark her as one of the same crowd. While "Into Thin Air" may have reflected its authors' biases, at least he was willing to acknowledge that there might be some and to look at his own mistakes that fateful day. Gammelgaard makes no such concessions. I'm glad I read the book just because it gives me a fresh perspective on one of the players, but it's certainly not a favorable one.

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!

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.

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.

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.