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

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. My wife is reading it currently. Having both caught the Everest bug, we have read Into The Silence by Wade Davis, Last Hours On Everest by Graham Hoyland, After Everest by Howard Somervell, Into Thin Air by Joh Krakauer. Krakauer's book took me a different direction. After reading his book, I then watched the movie, Into Thin Air' I then thought a witnessed account would fill in a few blanks for me regarding events surrounding the summit bid and was drawn to Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving The Everest Tragedy. . I found Ms. Gammelgaard's account to add further insight into the personalities of the key players in the drama on the mountain. I particularly enjoyed Lene's real time description of the confusion which slowly engulfed the events as the drama unfolded during the climb to and from the summit. Well done. She generated a tension that made her story compelling. Her heartfelt language took some getting used to; but, in the end it helped define her pesonality. I felt that I knew her just a little bit more.A good read as an adjunct to Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

Mixed feelings on this book. I don't think she's as self-loathing or hubris-driven as many here relate, though she does rub it in a bit unsportsmanlike when she bests other climbers and could be more a team player. It's an interesting read and I think valid enough that this was an empowering experience for her in which she fully realized and unleashed her own strength. However...in reading others' accounts I was asking myself "Were these people actually on the mountain in the same experience?" Everyone else writes really gripping and vividly harrowing accounts of what was clearly a horrifying and hellish ordeal. Lene's account remains cheery and pleasant throughout taking an upbeat approach even in discussing the worst stages of the climb including deaths. I was thinking "Was she actually there?" Either she is that self-centered and being one of the top climbers on board didn't struggle as others did and just had no empathy for all the extreme suffering of her friends - OR - it's a kind of self-protective denial of being overwhelmed by it all and unable to process it so just simply shutting out the noir sides in her mind. She's a psychologist however, I imagine in time she'll figure it out. One thing that struck me as extreme was how callous she was in referring to the dying Yasuko Namba contemptfully as "that bundle." Yasuko was clearly culturally alienated from everyone else and died a hardcore lingering suffering death alone.But I ended the book concluding that I really couldn't pass judgement because I'm not her and only she knows her ultimate intentions. People react very differently to trauma. I think maybe for her purposes the biggest tragedy was she and Anatoli didn't hook up and then he died a year later. She's probably still grappling with that as well. So ok overall I'd say a good read but not the ultimate source if you're looking for the real play-by-play of what went down when things went South on that mountain.

There have been many accounts written about the 1996 Everest tragedy. On May 10-11, eight people from three expeditions died when trapped by a storm in the Death Zone. They either disappeared on the mountain or were later discovered frozen to death. A ninth victim, Beck Weathers, survived after being left for dead when he was unable to move on his own. His walking into camp was nothing short of a miracle.Lene Gammelgaard was one of the hikers that made the summit on that fatal trip. She was part of Scott Fisher’s Mountain Madness Expedition. Scott himself was one of the five people from the combined Adventure Consultants/Mountain Madness bid for the summit.Lene tells her story with candid prose. She was one of the climbers lost in the whiteout above Camp Four. Only a break in the storm for an instant saved any of them. The sky was clear long enough for one of the climbers to get a bearing from the stars. Lene was one of the climbers who staggered to safety and alerted people to others dying not far from camp.What really happened to trap the climbers is only known by the survivors. They lived the dreadful moments of being lost in a storm 8000 meters up. They knew the people who died and the horror of being able to do nothing to save them. Lene’s account is straightforward and not focused on blame but focused on survival!I give the book four starsQuoth the Raven…

I did enjoy the diary type relating of her story. She is one of the most self absorbed authors I've ever read. According to her, she is the best and almost everyone else pales in comparison. She takes all of the credit for reaching the summit, but would never have made it without the assistance of many of the others. Whined about Scott making her use oxygen which she 100% needed and never thanked him or gave him any credit for her success. She claimed that they were such good friends, but showed little to no compassion for his death. It was disappointing to realize that this woman showed absolutely no compassion for anyone she didn't know or barely knew and very little for those she did know other than the man she lusted after, Anatoli. Many people lost their lives trying to summit that trip, which cost their families and friends pain, but this woman---she couldn't have cared less. The only important things were that she made it to the top and that she didn't get to satisfy her lust for Anatoli.

There are a few books out there about the 1996 disaster. Krakauer and Boukreev being the main 2. For those who want to learn a bit more this is an interesting account.

There are many books on this tragedy. Gammelgarrd is the one that I least warmed to. Other books are much better than this one.

comes from a very different place than most books on the 1966 disaster. enjoyed reading it very much but could not help wondering about her own agenda

Well worth the read-

One of the first books on 1996 Everest Disaster even before "Into Thin Air' was published...Lene G likes what Anatoly did high up in Death Zone in contrast to Krakauer who finds many faults with Anatoli Boukreev...