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I'll Call You in Kathmandu: The Elizabeth Hawley Story

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Bernadette McDonald called me more than a year ago to ask if she could interview me for a book she was writing, the biography of Elziabeth Hawley, whom I know from our days together at Fortune magazine. A Canadian who has studied, climbed and written extensively about mountains, Bernadette was a natural to write a book about Elizabeth, an American who has lived in Nepal since the early 1960s and who has earned international renown for her precise, 40-year documentation of climbing expeditions in the Himalayas.
While I was concerned that Bernadette might write a puff piece about Elizabeth or use her example to launch a feminist tract, I need not have worried. Her book is a realistic picture of an exceptional woman who carved an exceptional niche for herself in the exotic precincts of Kathmandu. Not only has Bernadette portrayed Elizabeth with candid accuracy, she has made her the linch-pin in providing a fast-paced and endlessly interesting chronicle of Himalayan mountaineering over the past four decades. Further, her narrative encompasses a modern history of Nepal itself, a country increasingly in the news as its archaic royal family attempts to fend off the encroachment of Maoist guerrillas.
This is indeed a worthwhile and well-written book.

Strap on your crampons, secure your harness, get a firm grip on your ice-axe, and prepare yourself for a literary Himalayan expedition. Your guide-Bernadette McDonald. The journey-To understand Miss Hawley, the chronicler and grand lady of Himalayan climbing.
I read 'I'll call you in Kathmandu' in one night, I simply could not put it down. Gripped between it's pages I felt as if I were back in Kathmandu and the Himalaya. This book is magic!!!
I truly applaud Bernadette McDonald for her tireless research, mountaineering insights, writing style, enthusiasm for the project, her uncanny ability to get to the core of the elusive Miss Hawley.
I first became aware of Miss Hawly in the early eighties while hanging out in Kathmandu, she seemed almost, 'out of place', surrounded by the local Nepalese and rag-tag foreign crowd. She was elegant and a mystery. Over the years I've wondered who this woman was, how she ended up in Kathmandu in the company of climbers and kings.
Bernadette McDonald, also a grand lady of the climbing world, has managed to bring the life of Miss Hawley and the Himalayan climbing scene to life for me, she has captured the spirit of this remarkable woman and landscape. Even those unfamiliar with climbing will be entranced by the larger then life characters, Himalaya, and the amazing Miss Hawley.
'I'll Call you in Kathmandu' comes at you like a cold mountain gust: penetrating, fresh, and able to transport you into another world. Rob Torkildson-Author of ENCOUNTERS With Remarkable People and Extreme Landscapes

I fully enjoyed how this story unfolded to reveal an extraordinary woman's life. The vignettes of her meetings with climbers, observations of historic events, and perspectives were fascinating. They accumulated to expose a very private, yet public, woman's passion for reporting and investigating on the world of Himalayan climbing. And then there's all the good work she did through the Himalayan Trust. This book is written in a compelling style and the extent of the research involved very impressive - the author proved herself to be quite an investigative reporter. A great read for anyone interested in Himalayan climbing, Nepal or just enjoys a terrific story about a unique woman's life.

Elizabeth Hawley, the chronicler of Himalayan climbing has led a remarkable life! The author, Bernadette McDonald has done an admirable job in this biography. She has managed to bring to the page Miss Hawley's no nonsense personality and tenacity as well as her charm and humor. I loved reading how Miss Hawley managed to "get the scoop" on some stories, as well as learning that some of the big egos of the climbing world got their noses out of joint as a result of Elizabeth's pronouncements. I learned tons about Nepal's history as well as the history and trends of Himalayan climbing. How did a serious girl from the midwest make her way around the world during the 50s and settle in the Himalayan kingdom? How did a woman who has never climbed a mountain herself come to be the authority on Himalayan climbing? And what interesting characters did she meet along the way? I recommend that you read this fascinating book to find out.

She has been accurately described as a "seventy-year-old firing squad with pink lipstick, glasses perched on the end of her nose, and clutching a clipboard." For over four decades, Himalayan climbers have endured a nerve-wracking, Kathmandu rite of passage: passing factual muster under the steely-eyed stare of high-altitude mountaineering's official chronicler, Miss Elizabeth Hawley. But just who is this primly-dressed, always coiffeured woman who strikes fear into the hearts of the world's boldest mountaineers? Where did she come from, this intimate of kings, queens, presidents, Sir Ed, and Messner--and how did she become such an integral part of the Himalayan climbing scene?

Bernadette McDonald, director of the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festivals in Canada--no shrinking violet herself--has accomplished the impossible. I'll Call You in Kathmandu is a thoroughly researched, definitive biography of Miss Hawley, complemented by a marvelous "who's who" of black and white photos depicting all eras of Liz's life -- plus a bevy of her favorite mountain men. Upon scaling the "Lhotse South Face" of secrecy guarding her subject's personal life, the author informs us in lively, occasionally gossipy, and richly anecdotal prose how Elizabeth Hawley transformed herself from an unspectacular midwestern American upbringing into "the living Himalayan archive," as Austrian mountaineering legend Kurt Diemberger calls her.

This historically important book excels as an intriguing read about an extraordinary woman's life well lived, and a behind-the-scenes look at forty years of landmark Himalayan ascents. I delighted in discovering Elizabeth's pet name for Sir Edmund Hillary, how she debunked Hillary Clinton's much publicized claim that her parents named her for Sir Ed, and Messner's explanation why he checked all four boxes (Married, Divored, Living with Girlfriend, and Single) on Liz's infamous personal data Fact Sheet. See Pages 223 - 224 of my autobiogarphy, Snow in the Kingdom, My Storm Years on Everest, for my own "Liz Hawley encounter" in 1988, when I was heading off to climb a new route without oxygen or Sherpas up Everest's East Face in Tibet (successfully, I might add) with only a 4-man team. Looking back, I like to think Liz thought we could do the route -- but after our KDU interview she probably thought we were completely out of our minds!

The book's sole flaws, especially considering Liz's stickling accuracy: two climbs are given incorrect years, on pages 98 and 184. An enjoyable, educational, and page-turning read.

For several years, I covered the climbing scene in Utah, where I kept hearing references to an elderly woman, Elizabeth Hawley, who lived in Kathmandu, and knew everything about Himalayan climbing. I always wondered who Hawley was and how she got to Nepal.

Now I know. This book follows the path that took Hawley to Kathmandu and explores the life she created there. Hawley is what I'd call a dame: irascible, snobby, sometimes rude, but also smart, unconventional and in charge of her own life. Bernadatte McDonald did a great job of capturing this woman, without sugar-coating her or offering apologies.

Those who have spent time in Nepal, climbers will have heard of Miss Hawley and if they have done something noteworthy, are likely to have met her in person. But most of you will come away puzzled by this non-climber who is the greatest chronicler of Himalayan ascents. Bernadette's book opens the door a crack. What I saw was more than I knew before, but there is still more, which is as it should be. You will enjoy this book whether you have incurred her wrath, or had her be nice to you or you weren't sure.

If you are interested in Nepal mountaineering, you will enjoy this book for its detailed profile of an unusual woman. Bernadette McDonald gives a fairly balanced assessment of Elizabeth Hawley, who played a remarkable role in climbing circles despite a stereotypical elitist attitude that prevented her from appreciating her adopted country and its people.

My main gripe with this book is its writing style, which is full of trivia about Hawley's youth and more workmanlike than engaging. Here's one example: "The exception was when there was heavy work to be done; here she saw heavily veiled women carrying heavy loads." McDonald may be a magazine editor, but in this effort she badly needed an editor of her own. Rarely have I been so put off by an author's style (or complete lack thereof).

The best material could be rewritten as a superb magazine article in, say, The New Yorker. But if you're interested in the topic -- say, like I, you want a book to take on your Nepal trek -- you'll find it worth reading.