Kenneth Kamler

Constable Robinson, September 2002, £7.99 (paperback)

ISBN: 1841196274

Rating: ****

When New York surgeon Kenneth Kamler got the call to go to Everest in 1996 he packed a huge box of medical supplies, with something for every eventuality, but not even he, who had attempted to climb Everest four times, could have imagined what the mountain had in store that year.

The months of acclimatisation brought all the usual cases to the medical tent: mountain sickness, broken bones, and frostbite, not to mention pulmonary oedema. Worst of all, one day in May 1996 eight climbers died in a storm high up on the mountain, and countless survivors came down, in desperate need of attention.

Many books and accounts have been published about the disastrous climbing attempt, but most memorable among them was Jon Krakauers award winning Into Thin Air. More recently, in Left for Dead, Beck Weathers, a Texan pathologist, gives an intriguing account of twice being pronounced dead and abandoned high on the mountain, only to be found staggering into camp, needing Kamlers attention.

The night has become legendary, but Kamlers angle is unique and special: told through the eyes of a climber desperate to get himself to the top and yet dedicated first to the health of everybody else on the mountain.

Kamlers account of the doomed Everest attempt is thrilling, emotive, and, although the author is telling the story of so many influential characters, it is very personal and poignant at times. His young family are ever present in his reflections, and he manages to convince us that there are more important things than the summit of the worlds highest mountain. He explains to us how it really feels to be on Everest and describes both the joys and costs of being there. If the reader is searching for accusations of blame or more theories about why the tragedy occurred, they wont find it in Kamlers Doctor on Everest. His is a personal story of the ultimate in expedition medicine, saving life in the death zone above 7500 metres.