Charlie Houston Remembered
Charles Houston, 96, died peacefully in his Vermont home on Sunday.
I knew Charlie mostly as a mountain climber. From his leadership on the first ascent of Nanda Devi in 1936—the highest mountain ascended until Annapurna was climbed 14 years later—to his expeditions on K2 in ’38 and ’53, Charlie represented the best in climbing.
The seminal moment of Charlie’s climbing life came on K2 in 1953. He and his partners decided to put their entire effort into rescuing team member Art Gilkey, who was incapacitated by altitude sickness. They knew that the rescue was not only virtually impossible, but that it would also very likely cost them their lives. The men placed the contract of the belay—the brotherhood of the rope as Charlie would so often refer to it—above concern for self. They failed to save Gilkey. But, against great odds, they succeeded in bringing each other down alive. Reinhold Messner said, “I have great respect for the Italians who summitted K2 for the first time in 1954, but even greater respect for the Americans and the way they failed in 1953. They were decent. They were strong. And they failed in the most beautiful way you can imagine. This is the inspiration of a lifetime.” Their heroic dedication to one another, to staying together and bringing each other down safely, remains an example not only for all climbers but for all people.
Charlie’s vision expanded well beyond the mountains. His book Going Higher was and is the bible of high altitude medicine for the lay reader. Charlie’s research brought attention and understanding to human adaptation to altitude and is the underpinning of the acclimatization strategies and medical regimens employed today. Charlie was a tireless investigator. His high altitude research on Mt. Logan from 1967 to 1979, the “Operation Everest” high altitude chamber studies in 1946 and 1985, and his founding of the International Hypoxia Symposia are just a few examples. He even tinkered, in the family basement, with the creation of an artificial heart.
In 2006 I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the midst of the surviving members of that iconic expedition to K2. Our purpose was to sustain Charlie’s work in high altitude medicine with the University of Colorado’s Altitude Research Center, where an endowed chair was established in Charlie’s name. Mostly, however, we gathered to celebrate Charlie. As Streather, Bates, Craig, and Molenaar gathered around Charlie, I noticed that it was true what Charlie said: “We entered the mountains as strangers, but we left as brothers.”
—As remembered by Phil Powers
Charlie was a friend and mentor in medicine, mountaineering, and life. His questions are ongoing lessons: “Tell me, are you well and happy? What are you doing for the world?” His unceasing curiosity coupled to a skeptical but positive outlook made him a hero for me.
[...] executive director of the American Alpine Club, has written a short remembrance of Houston at the AAC blog. Share and [...]
In 1998 our climbing organization – an Explorer Post for teenagers in Portland, Oregon – sponsored a gathering of K2 climbers as a reunion for the 1953 and 1978 American Expeditions. Charlie was a partner in this effort and managed to get his entire 1953 team to fly to Portland. It was a wonderful gathering of 22 K2 veterans. Since that time he had become a good friend, and we exchanged visits across the country four or five times. His particular interest was in forestry and in 2003 we took him for a memorable visit to the Opal Creek Ancient Forest in the Cascades. He had a deep and genuine interest in what we were doing in the Northwest to protect our environment. Subsequent visits to his home in Burlington were invariably a treat, touched with a tinge of sadness each time we had to say Goodbye.
I met Dr. Houston during Operation Everest II when he was studing the effects of hypoxia on 9 young climbers in a high altitude chamber. I was there as a TV reporter and found myself completely drawn in by his warm enthusiasm, gracious intelligence, and caring interest in his young subjects. I hope they all are well and have gone on to scale their own great heights in one way or another.
I first met Dr Houston in the Yukon on the icefields research project at age 12. Naturally, he was my hero and inspiration to be a climber. His Nanda Devi and K2 climbs were breakthroughs(not failures as /NYT) as well as his medical research. Luckily I was able to see him a couple times in the last few years with his tour for Brotherhood of the Rope. He truly embodied the spirit of this brotherhood…climb on!
A legend, an inspiration
I’m grateful for the time that I spent with him. His simple yet heavy questions always made me think about what I could do with my future but more importantly what I could do for the future. What an amazing guy.
Today I was saddened to learn of the passing of a great man. I was privileged to have contact with Doctor Charlie. He was a gentleman of the old school and one of the finest kind considerate humans I have known. Ironically I have a book waiting for his signature, something he often did for me with great courtesy. One year he sent a journal from his Banff conference unasked for on my part. When his 5th edition going higher book camp out I once again called him and he graciously spent a lot of time on the phone talking about teaching high altitude with me. I told him that I thought he had written the most amazing book and he proceeded in real modesty to tell me, no it was me teaching the altitude knowledge to students that was more important. This past July at the WMS meeting I talked about him to another Wilderness Medicine Gentleman Doctor, Blair Erb [about Doctor Charlie] and I asked Him why he thought He was such a gentleman of great kindness, Blair said he thought it was a because he had lived through so many hard times in the world that he saw the correct way to live. Blair in my opinion is in the same fine vain as Doctor Charlie. Both of them reminds me of both Sir Edmond Hillary and Warren who I was also fortunate to have been with on several occasions. These Men are precious but passing national, nay world treasures. Doc Charlie was one of the finest-30-
Carl Weil
Wilderness Medicine Outfitters Elizabeth Colorado
PS omission
Warren is Warren Bowman, the great ski instructor Doc- what a writer!