Life and Limb

By Jamie Andrew

Published Nov 2012

We’re not going to make it, I know now that we’re going to die. Ever since our hands froze I’ve known that we’re not going to make it through the night…

The weather looked perfect when Jamie Andrew and his close friend Jamie Fisher set off to climb the formidable North Face of Les Droites in the French Alps in January 1999. But a sudden ferocious storm hit them 10,000 feet up the mountain. They were trapped on a narrow ridge in temperatures of -30ºC, battered by winds so strong the rescue helicopters could not reach them. After five nightmarish nights doggedly clinging to life, Jamie Andrew was finally rescued, but his friend Jamie Fisher had died beside him on the last night. It was a miracle that Jamie Andrew lived; he now had to come to terms with not only the death of his friend – but also the loss of both his hands and feet. They all had to be amputated because of severe frostbite. This book recounts Jamie’s heroic struggle to overcome his disabilities; within three months of the accident, he had learnt to walk again on prosthetic legs, and started the painful process of re-learning everyday tasks like washing, dressing and feeding himself. Since then, Jamie has not only run the London Marathon, but incredibly, taken up again the sport he lived for – mountaineering.

Life and Limb is an enthralling epic of survival and death in the mountains. It is also an inspiring and moving story of one man’s unshakeable determination to overcome his disabilities, and lead the full and active life he loves.