25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
House Calls at the Roof of the World, April 9, 2001
This review is from: Doctor on Everest (Hardcover)
Dr. Ken Kamler is a veteran of several Everest expeditions. His book, Doctor on Everest, chronicles his foray into climbing, leading to the highest mountain on Earth and culminating in his participation in the famous 1996 rescue. Kamler allows us to see his adventures through his eyes, sharing events and inner thoughts that we normally hide behind our persona. We learn enough of his life outside climbing to identify with Kamler, and that makes his fears and emotions loom large in his writing.
Wrapped in a demanding profession, he sees some of his boyhood aspirations slipping away. Kamler finds an unexpected lull in his life. Seizing the chance, he enrolls in a rock climbing course, and enters the world of climbers. Moving to mountaineering, he rearranges professional requirements to slip away to South America. On his return, rather than the disdain he thinks he'll find for his shirking his profession, he sees that others give him wistful respect; their own lives a tangle of obligations that seem to keep them pinned to the lowlands, away from the peaks of their own dreams.
He finds mountaineering a social crossroads, where climbers from disparate backgrounds meet and share intense experiences. Eventually he's invited to go to Everest. While a good climber, he knows that his experience is below that of most expedition members. But he benefits from a sort of "affirmative action program for doctors." He shares with us not only his experiences, but also his inner self. Will he be able to meet medical challenges at altitudes where the body degenerates and all medical supplies came in by yak? And will he be able to climb well enough not to let down his comrades.
Even before he takes us to base camp he entertains with the exotic. In Katmandu a dog seizes a piece of meat. A customer grabs it and finally wins a tug-of-war. She then returns the meat to the bucket and buys the contents, going home to cook dinner. At his hotel, truck diesel exhaust penetrating the window's gaps serves as Kamler's alarm clock. He tries to escape the fumes in the bathroom, where he finds his roommate doing sit-ups. He is immediately struck by two discordant thoughts. The first is that doing sit-ups just before trekking to base camp isn't likely to help fitness. Equally strongly, he has to stifle the fear "I should be doing sit-ups too!"
Base camp is a collection of modern fabrics, alloys, and communications gear. But it is also an ironic blend of yak dung, juniper smoke from the altar, and prayer flags. The Sherpa's cultural attitudes are an interesting counterpoint to the immigrant climber's. On a later trip, longing for word from home before starting to climb, Kamler's group tells a Sherpa that they will give him a prized pair of sunglasses if he gets to the post office and back in three days - a significant challenge. He returns in time. When asked for the mail, he says the post office was closed and he couldn't wait or he'd be late. He couldn't understand why the Americans were disappointed; he did as asked. They gave him the glasses.
He sets up the highest medical practice in the world. As the climb gets closer, complaints loom larger from his patients. He treats not only the body, but also salves the apprehensions of his patients. The Sherpas present differently. One casually came by asking for help with back pain. "How long?" "Six years." Treating six years of chronic back pain on the Khumbu Glacier is a bit much, but sending him away sends the wrong message. Kamler starts a complete physical exam, stopping only when he thinks enough time has passed. Nodding sagely, he dispenses an anti-inflammatory. Heck, it might even help. A day later Kamler learns that "Dr. Sab" has cured the back pain.
Kamler records several trips to Everest. As a physician, he always sees firsthand the frailty of the human body when nature's immutable forces, so savage here, catch men unaware or weakened. High altitude problems force Kamler to send climbers lower, away from their goal. And massive trauma is often the result of errors or of twists of fate. As chance would have it, in 1996 Kamler's group is a day behind several parties who are caught by a severe storm while descending late from the summit. These events have been well recorded by John Krakauer, Anatoli Boukreev, and David Breashears. Fate has placed Kamler at camp III, the highest physician in the world at that moment. He treats Beck Weathers and Makalu Gao. Their survival was a combination of incredible luck, or amazing fate, or perhaps karma, the skills of the mountaineers, the highest helicopter rescue in the world, and Kamler and a second climbing physician.
Why face these challenges? Kamler offers "Danger in the mountains is a reason not to climb, but it's also a reason to climb. It's not thrill seeking. Accepting risk means you gain immediate direct control of your life. It forces open your senses and puts your mind into sharp focus. You become a keen observer of nature's grand design and quiet nuances." The grinding drone of daily existence in western society comes from the amorphous challenges that overwhelm us. "Stress comes from expending one's strength in poorly defined problems and over which you have limited control. ... Meeting tough challenges that are sharply in focus is energizing."
Kamler has never made it to the summit of Everest. Weather has kept him off it, directly and indirectly. More importantly, he measured himself both as a climber and a person, and proven he was more than up to his challenges. Once a climber was descending with pulmonary edema, dropping to a lower elevation in hopes of reversing the fluid build up in his lungs so as not to drown thousands of feet above sea level. He saw another climber coming up to meet him. "Please God, let that be Ken." It was.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
not just another Everest book, November 29, 2000
This review is from: Doctor on Everest (Hardcover)
Don't miss this one.
Adventure. Exploration. Human emotion. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Or is it feet? (as in cold and frostbitten) Not to mention broken ankles,concussions,and pulmonary edema.As both climber and M.D.,Kamler offers it all up with unique perspectives.
Kamler takes us on the literal and figurative ups and downs of mountaineering, including the tragic Everest storm of '96 when he was the solo medical person on the mountain. The buck stops with Kamler, who as expedition doctor must make ultimate decisions regarding the well-being of fellow climbers with often limited information and resources. He runs a veritable E.R. at the top of the world.
So,why climb Everest? Because it's there? Judging from this book, the answer is alot more involved and intriguing. Kamler's insights and recollections really drew me in and kept me going to the last page; it's real life drama that reads like fiction. A must read for those who seek adventure, those who long to, and for those who are not quite sure (like me).
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
