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http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/charlie_houston_dies_at_96/


Charlie Houston Dies at 96
By Dougald MacDonald / The Mountain World

News Link: Charles Houston, a pioneering American climber and altitude researcher, died at his home in Vermont on September 27. He was 96. Houston was part of the Anglo-American team that made the first ascent of 25,643-foot Nanda Devi in 1936, and he attempted K2 in 1938 and 1953. Houston’s research and writing on high altitude (notably the 1980 book Going High and the 2005 work Going Higher) were instrumental in helping climbers understand the process of acclimatization and the dangers of high altitude pulmonary edema and other mountain ailments.

Phil Powers, executive director of the American Alpine Club, has written a short remembrance of Houston at the AAC blog.

I read his biography, Brotherhood of the Rope last year. He certainly packed a lot of living into those 96 years, while at the same time making a huge contribution to mountaineering medicine. And his riveting account of Pete Schoening's single-handed ice axe belay of five climbers (plus Art Gilkey, who didn't survive) during the US K2 expedition, kept me on the edge of my seat in K2, The Savage Mountain. RIP Mr. Houston.

He did live a good life.

I have his book "Going Higher: Oxygen, Man, and Mountains" It's a good book.

The mountaineering world lost a great man. I saw him speak at an American Alpine Club annual meeting a number of years back. He pioneered mountain medicine research that led to knowledge we all use today whether we realize it or not.

Thanks Charles for all your contributions. My prayers to you, your family, and friends.

Charlie was a tremendous resource of knowledge about mountaineering, and high altitude medicine as others have mentioned. He was a pioneer in the understanding of HAPE. Despite my own medical training and experience, I consulted Charlie in 1998 after my climbing partner had serious altitude illness on Denali. With Charlie's advice, three medications,and good fortune, my friend and I had successful adventures in the Andes and Himalayas. We appreciated Charlie's guidance, although we realized that Mother Nature was still in charge.

Look up Houston's "Operation Everest" -hypobaric chmaber testing on hypoxia, and training of WWII pilots on recognition of loss of consciousness.

One other anecdote. The last time I talked to him (in 2002) he was busily engaged with a yard crew. I imagine he had advice for them, too. Charlie is perhaps now giving advice to the angels who fly higher than the mountains he loved.

Harvey

This link in the Burlington Free Press has a bit more bio.

Charlie was a friend of mine. Not a close friend, but a friend nonetheless, from the '80s. For mountaineers, Brotherhood of the Rope is the read of a lifetime. And the included DVD is absolutely precious. Do a search on "Children of The Belay" to get a flavor of these people.

Sold! I can't wait to get a copy.

Thanks so much for this post. I am a huge fan of literary works (my wife is a librarian) and always looking for more good novels that have anything to do with mountaineering/climbing. Looks like he has 60+ entries of things he as either authored or been a part of.... I am sure I will enjoy learning more about Mr. C. Houston. I am a bit sorry to see him pass away, but, hey 96 years ain't a bad life.

Saw him a number of years ago at an American College of Sports Medicine annual conference. Had heard of his research; it wasn't until a few years later that I learned that he had also been a mountaineer, while reading about the K2 expedition he was part of. There are a few individuals who have been so influential in both a sport/athletic activity and such an influence in the science/medicine behind the event, and I have been privileged to hear at least two; Sir Roger Bannister is the other. Amazing individuals.

The Bill Moyers Journal on PBS tonight ended with a segment on Charles Houston. You can find it on:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10092009/profile2.html

Since Dr. Houston's passing, I've been reading / re-reading some of his published works. I ran across this in "K2 The Savage Mountain" over the weekend:

Chapter 1 - The call to climb

"On great mountains all purpose is concentrated on the single job at hand, yet the summit is but a token of success, and the attempt is worthy in itself. It is for these reasons that we climb, and in climbing find something greater than accomplishment."


I'm planning on adding "... yet the summit is but a token of success, and the attempt is worthy in itself." to my signature.

Every once in a while, you come across writing that explains things that you can't seem to explain yourself. This is a great quote!

Richard, I have a bunch of Houston's lines in my collection of quotes (by topic). I have been accumulating these for the last 11 years. Houston had a lot of good ones.

Here is my favorite, from Joe Tasker in Savage Arena, before he and fellow Brit Pete Boardman were lost on Everest.

"In some ways, going to the mountains is incomprehensible to many people and inexplicable by those who go. The reasons are difficult to unearth and only with those who are similarly drawn is there no need to try to explain."

I'll see if I can stir up another good one from Houston, too.

Harvey

okay, here are some from Houston

"Perhaps it is this conquest, conquest of one’s self through survival of such an ordeal, that brings man back to frontiers again and again…By testing himself beyond endurance man learns to know himself."
Charles Houston, in Houston and Bates
K2 the Savage Mountain pages 160

"But there is a primitive and fierce satisfaction derived from facing up to naked danger…defying nature in her wildest, most awful moods… we were fighting for our lives…From this primitive struggle has come memories and inner strength beyond “sport” or “pleasure”."
Charles Houston, A Narrow Escape on K2,
The Mountain World 1954, page 128

"I would not deny that the summit matters and matters greatly, but I know that the rewards of climbing lie in the venture and not alone in the triumph."
Charles Houston in New York Times,
in Bernadette, McDonald,
Brotherhood of the Rope.
The Biography of Charles Houston.
page 228