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Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy | 
 enlarge | Authors: Lene Gammelgaard, Press Seal
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 479595
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0060953616
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522092
EAN: 9780060953614
ASIN: 0060953616
Publication Date: July 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: used-remainder mark-front cover has large tear-corners are worn and tattered
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Product Description
On May 10, 1996, Lene Gammelgaard became the first Scandinavian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.But a raging storm and human error conspired to turn triumph into catastrophe. Eight of her team's climbers, including its renowned leader Scott Fischer, perished in a tragedy that would make headlines around the world. In her riveting account, Gammelgaard takes us from her weeks of determined training to the exhilaration of arriving in Nepal to the arduous climb and deadly storm that forced her and her fellow climbers to huddle throughout the night, hoping to stay alive. Gammelgaard also writes movingly of Everest's awesome beauty; of the passion and commitment required to face the daunting challenge of climbing to high altitudes; and of the complex personal relationships forged in the pursuit of such dangerous ventures. Arlene Blum, author of the classic account of women and mountaineering, Annapurna: A Woman's Place, calls Climbing High "an honest and deeply personal account."
Amazon.com Review
In May 1996, Lene Gammelgaard became the first Scandinavian woman to reach the peak of Mount Everest. The next day she made history again by surviving the mountain's deadliest disaster. The catastrophic blizzard that killed eight climbers, including Gammelgaard's friend and expedition leader Scott Fischer, spurred controversy over the commercialization of Everest, and has been exhaustively chronicled in accounts such as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. Fortunately, Climbing High offers an original, insightful view of the tragedy and steers clear of the need to explain what went wrong: "You cannot expect anyone to help you ... up there. Your fate is in your own hands, your own two feet." Gammelgaard kept journals throughout the expedition, and her account stays true to this form: short, intense, and subjective entries on the pressures of financing the climb, the fierce physical and psychological challenges women face in extreme sports, and the tricky cluster of personalities that can make or break a summit bid. Yes, there are gripping moments, such as the desperate night she and seven others spent exposed in the storm above 20,000 feet, but Gammelgaard is at her best when providing insights into what drives people to risk--and sometimes lose--their lives. --Svenja Soldovieri
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| Customer Reviews: Read 52 more reviews...
 EVEREST AS A TROPHY MOUNTAIN... March 31, 2008
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.
It's About The Big Thing: Me, Myself & I. Oh! And Everest! June 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am a rabid Everest-phile, reading everything I can get my hands on and I've got all the books by the best and brightest to have ever climbed Everest.
Lene's book wasn't the worst, certainly not the best. Definitely readable because I looked forward to reading it each night before I fell asleep.
The problem with Lene is she is not comfortable in here own skin or life. She has had a laundry list of occupations: sailor, attorney, drug counselor, psychotherapist, journalist and on. I think summitting Everest was supposed to finally make her feel worthy or complete. Of what, I don't know. I don't think she found what validation she sought on Everest either and all she preached about for pages, like a mantra, was "must summit, must return safe" as if that was the secret to eternal happiness and self-acceptance: summitting Everest!
Curiously, she only writes of her small enclave of friends on this ill-fated climb and there were tons of people in Scott Fisher's group and Rob Hall's. Possibly because NOT a lot of people LIKED her. She never mentions Jon Krakauer as if he did not exist on that trip. Maybe because he had a HUGE bestseller and she didn't.
I also wonder about the relationship between she and Scott as they had a history of constant mail correspondence and running off to exotic mountains together. She does not delve deep into this.
It was a readable book however, and I loved that there was the entire climb itinerary from Base Camp to the final standby at Camp 4. Her narrative was excellent when it came to describing being trapped by the unexpected storm on Everest and what the other climbers were going through.The photos, unfortunately black & white, were quite informative though.
If you've read ALL the other books on Everest and are still hungering for more, this is NOT by far the worst of the series, just not the best.
 A badly written and researched book - saving grace? the few photos! May 31, 2007
This book is pooly written - I dont know if this is the author's insistance or some kind of translation error from danish to english, but the style of writing really puts you off.
I find it hard to believe that any american publisher's editors did not notice the bad translation, maybe this is just the style of the writing insisted by the author.
The book is about the authors trip to everest summit. There is very little substance in the book. This is more a fit for a one page or two page article in a magazine than to be published as a hard bound.
After you read Krauker's book, you are bowled over by the style, the research and the facts crammed into it. Even though Krauker may have titled it as a personal narrative, there is no disputing the fact that 'Into Thin air' provides all the information that you may want to know about the expedition, and is essentially a 'History' of the tragedy. This book on the other hand offers zilch.
The only saving grace are a couple of photos - one showing the hillary step from the bottom, the other showing the areas of the camp and'the huddle' on South col. Avoid it if you can.
Not the best book out there about Everest 1996 January 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What it is about:
In May 1996 Lene Gammelgaard became the first Scandinavian woman to reach the peak of Mount Everest. This is another book about the 1996 Everest tragedy.
What it is good about it:
It is interesting to have a woman's perspective on what happened during that season on Mount Everest. She is more sensitive to expedition's leaders than other authors who have written about this tragic event. It is also good to know that she didn't write this book after seeing all the fame that other authors received and try to cash in on this tragic event but in fact she was one of the first writers of the event and was only published later in the US.
What is bad about it:
I have a lot more bad to say then good. This is a steam of consciousness sort of writing and it just rambles. I am also in awe that this woman would write this way about herself. I don't know if that is bravery, some sort of moral adherence to the truth or if she hasn't figured out that she sounds like a high paying amateur that she complains about. She didn't even know what kind of equipment to use and she kept arguing with her expedition leader on whether or not she could climb w/o oxygen (which is very rare)!
Conclusion: There are better everest books out there!
A badly written book! May 23, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The author came across as a rather selfish and arrogant person, totally self involved. There were enough problems up there on Mt. Everest without Gammelgaard throwing temper tantrums because Scott Fischer wanted her to summit with oxygen. She frequently drew conclusions about other's thoughts and motivations without any basis for these judgements. The writing was boring, choppy, and unedited for grammar. Hopefully, Gammelgaard did get around to paying Mountain Madness the balance of what she owed them. She tried to convince us that she did in fact pay in full. Not true. Frankly, the woman has difficulty in relating the facts with truthfulness. I could never recommend a book this poorly written. She didn't really write about mountain climbing. She wrote more about love of self. Her own self, that is.
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