New on the shelves, this is the story of the horrendous mountain accident that cost Jamie Andrew both his arms and legs and the life of his climbing partner, and his subsequent fight to regain his life...
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'Life And Limb' - Jamie
Andrew
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Price: £17.99
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Weight: 672 grammes
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Features: hardback
book, 306 pages, 14 colour pics, published by Portrait
Books.
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Think back a few years and you might remember the harrowing story of
two young British climbers trapped high in the Alps while a winter
storm raged around them and the local rescue teams tried desperately
to reach them.
Both were called Jamie, one - Jamie Fisher - died in the cold and
fierce winds, the other was rescued, but severe frostbite meant he
had to have both hands and feet amputated in Chamonix. 'Life and
Limb' is Jamie Andrew's story of what happened on the climb, over the
five nights he spent stranded high on the Droites and afterwards as
he fought to rebuild his life.
The first third of the book covers the climb of the North Face of
the Droites and the increasingly desperate situation of the two
climbers caught out in a winter storm high above Chamonix. Andrew
isn't a great or showy writer, but the lack of literary hystrionics
makes the unfolding drama quietly effective. From a tough but routine
climb, through a carefully judged bivouac, to the descent into
nightmarish horror as Andrew watches his partner die in front of him
and he tried to unzip his jacket so the end would come faster.
There's one chilling moment when sleeping, he sees the mountain
open up and shadowy figures taking first Fisher, then coming back for
him, that opens a window into his sub-conciousness, that's slammed
shut as the resue helicopter arrives and he's winched to safety.
The rest of the book deals with his recovery, first in Chamonix
hospital, then back in Edinburgh. It's very much light after the
darkness, but what really shines through is Jamie Andrew's unshakable
drive and optimism measured against the mundane challenges of living
without his hand or feet.
It's not always comfortable reading and after the high drama of
the first third of the book, it could seem a little anti-climactic,
but it's hard not to come away with a gentle admiration for Jamie
Andrew's quiet determination to look positively at his life and
what's happened to him.
This is a man, who, despite his accident, writes: 'Rather than
brooding on my bad luck and wishing that things would have been
different, I rejoice in my good luck and in all the good things that
happen in my life.'
Since his accident, he's climbed Ben Nevis, been back on ice and
rock routes, run the London Marathon and, coming full circle in a
small way, climbed the Arete des Cosmiques with the man who rescued
him. And yet he still claims he has 'little idea of how to go about
inspiring people'. We reckon anyone who reads his book may beg to
differ.
Quietly understated, Life and Limb begins with the bleak cold of a
truly horrendous mountaineering incident before emerging into the
sunlit uplands of Andrew's recovery. It's not a showy book, though
occasionally it strikes a small vein of really evocative prose, but
you come to admire the quiet determination which must have made the
author a hard, relentless climber and the lack of self pity that's
carried him through events that would have shattered many people.
Well worth a read.
