Five Miles High: The Thrilling True Story of the First American Expedition to K2

by Charles S. Houston, Robert H. Bates, Jim Wickwire (Foreword)

Five Miles High is the epic account of the 1938 American Karakoram expedition to the summit of K2 - a climb considered more treacherous and difficult than Everest. Equipped with the most "modern" gear available to them - wool mittens, canvas tents, and buckle-up, leather-strapped crampons - this group of young men set out to surmount the insurmountable. A four-month-long journey would take them to one of the most inhospitable climes on the face of the Earth, nearly 27,000 feet above sea level and many miles from any sign of human settlement.The party walked 350 miles form Kashmir to K2, through Baltistan. They attempted to find routes on three sides of that huge mountain, finally reaching 26,000 feet on what has since become the standard route - now known as the Abruzzi Ridge.With a shrewd wit and a survivalist's sense of determination, Robert H. Bates and Charles S. Houston provide an intimate and gripping account of their adventures, evoking all the terror, excitement, and pure exaltation a person feels when standing, five miles high, on a part of the globe where no person has stood before. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 402 pages, b&w photos, illustrations)

Genres: Travel, Adventure, Mountaineering, Nonfiction, Climbing

381 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic, old mountaineering book by Robert Bates (teacher at Exeter School, NH) and Dr. Charles Houston, (physician at U of Vermont) who both recently passed away. Both men were adventurers, compassionate and devoted to their wives and families, and yet we're amazing modern day adventurers and explorers. Although the book focuses on the 1938 and 1953 climbs, the beauty in it is that relationships and human bonds that came out of the climbs that were both unsuccessful to get to the top, but entirely successful to bring a part of the world little known by Americans back home to the average person. Bravo Charlie and Bob - long live your legacies!

[Fareeha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written though not as well written as some of others I've read (in the respect that you can't really visualize some aspects of the climb as you can in some books). It was great to 'see' our region in 1938 ! Has simply whetted my appetite to read more accounts of the pioneers and especially of K2 !