Customer Reviews

Doctor on Everest

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As a physician I have been active in expeditions into remote areas since the 1960's. This books is probably the best that I have ever read concerning the tribulations that one goes through as a physician and as a team member attempting to push the envelope of personal risk and responsibility for expedition members. I found this book impossible to put down. It is a great read and is a major contribution to wilderness and mountain medicine and adventure.

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.

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).

If you are searching for a new genre of literature that is informative, descriptive, witty, in-depth and factual, then "Doctor on Everest" should finally end your quest. This story is for both men and women who would be intriqued by reading about a doctor's journey on Mt. Everest and all of his interludes along the way. The author is often humorous within his style of writing and leaves no room for the reader to feel superfluous. You will be captivated with curiosity and excitement within the first few pages of his adenture and also feel compelled to continue reading onward.

Dr. Kamler describes his journey so vividly in his book, that the reader is made to feel that he/she is right along the journey with him, cheering him on. His compassion towards his numerous patients on the mountain, has the reader feeling a certain amount of empathy for the doctor when he is unable to assist everyone. This is a fast reading story and Dr. Kamler does not confuse the average reader with just quoting medical terminology. It is suited for all to read and will keep the reader on his/her toes.

When you finally read up to the last page of the story, you feel almost let down because it has come to and end. After reading Dr. Kamler's story, I believe that the author is an altruistic man who risked his own life to save many others. That to me, is what a true human being was put on the earth to do. There is an oath that Dr. Kamler had taken to become a physician, but it did not state anywhere that you had to risk your own life. This is the type of oath that comes from the heart.

Ken Kamler is a likeable person and caring physician. His narrative allows you to feel the physical pain and frustration of high altitude climbing. From my armchair, I was rooting for him every step of the way. Although a competent climber, he's no superstar. Climbing is not as easy for him as it seems to be for Krakauer and therein lies much of the book's appeal.

From the title, I was expecting more of a focus more on high altitude medicine per se, but it's really a personal adventure story.

Definitely worth reading for a different perspective on Everest. Although not specifically about the events of 1996, it does cover them and it's a good follow up if you've already read one of the other books.

Despite of the misleading title, I found this book to be quite engrossing and I read it compulsively from cover to cover in a single sitting. The book is different from other climbing books because it deals with medical part of the climb which is not often about making it to the summit but in saving lives. Dr. Kamler writes extremely well and this will be one book that you will read to finish. Like one reviewer before me stated, I was bit disappointed when the book ended.

The misleading title refered to the fact that I thought the book was more or less about that 1996 Everest climbing season that took so many lives. That section only took up a small portion of the book. Much of the book involves his other expeditions up to Everest. While not boring reading material, like most I probably expected more on that 1996 climbing season.

After reading many books about Mt. Everest, I have finally found one that gets personal. Dr. Kamler does a wonderful job of describing his adventures on Mt Everest. What makes this book stand out is Dr. Kamler himself. He lets us know what he is feeling every step of the way. Many of us cannot imagine climbing Mt. Everest, but Dr. Kamler allows us to climb along side of him. Dr. Kamler gives us a very "human" account of his expeditions to the tallest mountain in the world.

After reading pretty much the gamut of Everest books from Into Thin Air to more obscure books by other climbers, I feel qualified to render an opinion on this book written by the doctor who spanned several expeditions in his own attempt to summit (so far he hasn't made it). I was all set to find it pretentious and egocentric, but to my surprise it was thoroughly enjoyable with not a trace of ego. This is no mean feat for someone who specializes in microscopic hand surgery and gives up several months out of the year to pursue his hobby. In addition to being a great help to many teams of climbers, he provides very vivid accounts of his own attempts to reach the summit. I would rate this just behind Into Thin Air -- a high compliment. Plus, I loved the everyday details like the fact that he used sanitary napkins to keep his underwear clean. By the time we reach the famous IMAX/Everest expedition we are able to see this trip in the context of several climbing seasons. The author is blessed with a supportive family that tolerated his long absences each season. All in all, a rousing read with lots of suspense along the way. Also more personal than most of the other Everest accounts with a "you are there" feeling to it.

I am not a mountain climber, but after hearing a review of this book on NPR I felt it was a book I wanted to read. I found this well written non-fiction book read like a novel, and was a real page turner. Written from the perspective of a medical doctor as well as a climber, Kamler discusses high altitude medicine as well as climbing. This is an intimate account of a variety of attempts by Kamler to climb Mt. Everest, as well as the medical treatments that he administered as the team doctor. This book also deals with the tragedy of the 1996 disaster in which he was valuable in helping some of the survivors. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mountain climbing or medcine.

Kamler has done something that not many writers have. He has beaten Jon Krakauer at his own game. Krakauer's Into Thin Air is a wonderful book, but if you can read only one of these books, I would recommend this one. Kamler takes us up the ice falls and over the glacier and describes the remarkable physical and character of the amazing Sherpas who carry not only themselves but often the climbers from the industrialized world and most their neccesary and egocentric belongings. Kamler is a very skilled and successful hand surgeon who has made of himself one of the world's leading clinical experts on high altitude human physiology. While not on the same plane as Krakauer's vertigenous Eiger Dreams, Kamler's descriptions of glacier and ice fall crossings, of the terrible and extreme consequences of high altitude illnesses and accidents as well as the more or less routinely endemic degenerative effects of prolonged oxygen deprivation, are more than enough to make most of us content to stay on a considerably lower plane. wfh