Brotherhood of the Rope

The Biography of Charles Houston

Includes a DVD of the '38 and '53 trips

Bernadette McDonald

With an introduction by Thomas Hornbein

Charles Houston started climbing in the 1930s when a teenager in France and America as a result of his father's interest. He became an expedition leader while a medical student at Harvard with the first ascents of Mount Foraker (1934) and Nanda Devi (1936) where he shared the leadership with Bill Tilman.

His next great adventure was the 1938 attempt on K2 that went high on the route first attempted by the 1909 Abruzzi expedition. Following an ill-fated German/American bid in 1939 (about which Houston was very critical), he led the next K2 bid in 1953. Although going high, this too came close to disaster when the whole team was attempting to rescue a stricken member (Art Gilkey) from high on the mountain. The '38, '39 and '53 attempts paved the way for the Italian first ascent in 1954.

Houston's two expeditions are regarded as exemplary in their leadership and teamwork in contrast to the controversies that followed the '39 and '54 bids that remained bottled up until the recent deaths of some of the main participants. This is therefore an important book as it brings together and considers many old feuds. K2 The Savage Mountain, the successful book Houston wrote with Robert Bates, had concentrated on the events surrounding the Gilkey catastrophe whereas this book brings a retrospective view of leadership tactics, teamwork, high altitude medicine and also includes valuable film footage (on a DVD) of both the 1938 and 1953 bids. Houston's views can also be found in his Forward to the Nanda Devi: Exploration and Ascent (2000).

Buy this book from Cordee
  • Price:   £ 16.99
  • Cover type: Hardback (Cover for case)
  • Publisher: Bâton Wicks
  • Publish date: 2007 (Available)
  • ISBN: 1-898573-71-9
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"Bernadette McDonald has done justice to the subject [with her] elegant use of English and diligent research... to reveal deep wisdom and insight." David Hillebrandt CC Journal

"... a tour de force of a biography into the soul and life of a complex, troubled, brilliant man and mountaineer.David Roberts

"The DVD was fascinating and nail-biting"Pete Benson RC Journal