No Place For Men

The story of Peter Mulgrew, a New Zealand mountaineer and his part on an expedition to climb Malaku on the Nepal/Tibet border without oxygen assistance in 1961, organised by Sir Ed Hillary.
350 feet from the summit he suffered pulmonary oedema, succumbing to terrible frostbite. The rest of the climbing team, some of who were already invalided off the summit attempt (including Sir Edmund Hillary, who had suffered a transient stroke) and the Sherpas had to assist him down the mountain, in fact carrying him most of the way. Finally back at the base camp, the four injured/ill were helicoptered back to Kathmandu and to hospital, where Mulgrew learned his legs were so badly frostbitten he would lose them, although not until he had recovered enough to travel home to New Zealand for specialised medical care.
Not covered in this book, but sadly after his recovery, and subsequent feats in climbing the Matterhorn, and representing NZ in sailing, Mulgrew was killed in the Erebus disaster (a NZ sight seeing flight to Antarctica). His widow June married Sir Ed Hillary ten years later.