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Brotherhood of the Rope

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The Biography of Charles Houston

By Bernadette McDonald,     With an Introduction by Tom Hornbein

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Published by Baton Wicks, London, 2007, 1st British Edition (Published simultaneously with the 1st North American Edition by The Mountaineers, Seattle), No D/w (none issued), Mint.    Charles Houston (1913-2009) was an American physician, mountaineer, high-altitude investigator, inventor, author and film-maker.  Houston was introduced to climbing in Chamonix at the age of twelve, joined the mountain club at Harvard while a medical student in the early 1930s, took part in Bradford Washburn’s Mount Crillon expedition in Alaska and later in his father’s successful Mount Foraker climb.  However, he is best known for three Himalayan expeditions; The British-American Himalayan Expedition of 1936 to Nanda Devi which he co-led with Bill Tilman; the 1938 American Karakoram Expedition to K2 which he led; and the 1953 American Karakoram Expedition, again to K2, which he also led.  This latter expedition saw the unsuccessful attempt to save the dangerously ill Art Gilkey as the team, caught by a ferocious storm high on the mountain, attempted to descend.  Following a disastrous fall, all the expedition members other than Gilkey survived what was one of the most dramatic escapes in mountaineering history.  Houston’s leadership, however, was praised throughout the expedition by the team members who all became close friends thereafter.  Houston went on to become an acknowledged expert in high-altitude medicine.  Award winning mountaineering author Bernadette McDonald has written a candid biography which charts Houston’s mountain adventures, the ups and downs of his varied medical career and the associated challenges in his family life.  Includes a DVD documentary, with historical film footage, of the epic American attempts of K2 in 1938 and 1953, and the resulting rescue that remains one of mountaineering’s most harrowing stories.

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Weight0.65 kg