About the Author

MICHAEL GILL was a 22-year-old medical student when he followed up on a newspaper statement in 1959 that Sir Edmund Hillary was looking for an additional climber for his next Himalayan expedition. As climber, photographer, doctor and writer, Mike was subsequently invited on nearly all the Hillary expeditions through to the last of them in jet boats up the river Ganges in 1977. He has written two other books, a mountaineering autobiography, Mountain Midsummer in 1989, and Himalayan Hospitals, 2011, an account of the experiences of the doctors and other volunteers who worked for the Himalayan Trust between 1961 and 2002.