K2 the Savage Mountain

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

The 1953 American expedition to the second highest peak in the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mountaineering, Adventure, History, Travel, Survival, Biography

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

Reviews

[Karen Terrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the 1953 expedition to K2 - an expedition that included my father, Dee Molenaar. The K2 expedition changed my father's life forever. The men on that expedition were tested in ways that few people are tested. They had to make choices that few of us do. They did everything they could to help bring their sick friend, Art Gilkey, down from their high point (25,590 feet) - knowing, even as they helped Art, that they all could very well die trying to bring him down.

Written in the words of the expedition leaders (Charlie Houston and Bob Bates) there is an immediacy to the thoughts and feelings we read in K2:The Savage Mountain. The book starts out with the mundane - numbers and weights of food and clothing and alpine equipment - and leads us, step-by-step (literally) to that chapter where "The Accident" happens.

As a middle school social studies and English teacher I used the chapter titled "The Accident" and the following chapter, "The Bivouac" in my classes every year - we'd talk about the Himalayan Mountains and how they separated India from China in our social studies class; and we'd talk about setting, character, introduction, body, and conclusion, vocabulary and word choice, and the universal themes of friendship, death, challenge, and courage in our English class. The book is well-written.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading books about high adventure and survival against all odds.

[Mazola1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the base of K2 stands the Gilkey Memorial, a cairn with the names of those climbers who lost their lives on K2. The memorial was put up in 1953 to mark the death of Art Gilkey, a member of the 1953 American expedition to K2. K2 the Savage Mountain tells the story of that expedition, Gilkey's death, and the famous attempt to save him.

Art Gilkey was struck with thrombophlebitis high on K2, becoming so incapacitated by it that he was unable to climb. The other members of the expedition undertook heroically to carry him down the mountain despite a drastic deterioration in the weather and the fact that it was all but certain that Gilkey could not be saved, and that the rescue attempt would cost everyone their lives.

Despite these daunting obstacles, the group set off, carrying and lowering Gilkey in a makeshift litter. At one point, one member fell, and started to slide down the mountain, taking his companions with him. Miraculously, Pete Schoening, in one of the most amazing and storied feats in mountaineering history, was able to arrest the fall, holding the rope and thus sparing five of his companions from death. Forced later to stop to set up a camp as night fell, Gilkey's litter was anchored to the slope with two ice axes, and the other members of the group set about the arduous task of chopping tent platforms into the hard ice. When they finished and returned for Gilkey, they found that he was gone.

It has never been established whether an avalanche swept Gilkey away, or whether he decided to sacrifice himself to give his companions a chance to survive. Even after this, the survival of the remaining climbers was not guaranteed, and they had to fight dire conditions to get down the mountain. Two of the members' toes were so frostbitten that they had to be carried from the base of the mountain to civilization on the shoulders of porters.

K2 The Savage Mountain is written by two of the expedition's members. The writing is plain, simple and indeed, understated. It recounts two legendary events in the annals of high altitude mountaineering, and is worth reading for this alone. It also provides an interesting insight into the risks and rewards of climbing, and the bonds that form between those who share a rope at high altitude.

[Henry Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is an understated quality to this account of the 1953 American expedition that reflects the integrity and commitment to each other that characterized what is now referred to as the 'old school' approach to planning a summit bid. The thoughtful steps taken to assemble a talented and compatible team committed to each other as well as to their mission would seem to be the appropriate paradigm for any adventure that relentlessly tests survival skills. The truth is in the execution. They did not reach the summit because of the weather. One can only imagine how horrific and frightening those days and nights were hoping for a change in the weather, and then having to begin a descent in those stormy conditions to try and save a teammate with blood clots. This is not the ego - media driven world we live in today. This is a window into another time, when the pioneer spirit of the previous century still animated the imagination of the explorer and men understood that there was strength and hope in working together.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed that.

Extremely thorough and informative recollection of the events of the American 1953 K2 summit attempt. I have had a love affair with mountaineering stories since I first read the Everest series by Gordon Korman as a child, and I had heard about this story before and wanted to read a first-hand account. This group of men was tested to their very limits, and even though they didn’t reach the top it’s a testament to their skill, willpower, and luck that most of them made it back alive.

“No mountain is climbed by one man or two. Behind them stands the shadow of dozens of others who tried, hoped, and failed. In their failure they gained much, and they look with pride, respect, but with sadness too at those who won.”

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I don't climb mountains, this book is an example of how it should be done. Everybody working together to get to the summit, and down safely, if at all possible.

While everybody knows Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world, unless you're a mountain climber or an obsessed reader of mountaineering books, you might not know that K2 is actually the most difficult mountain, and most deadly mountain to climb.

Charles Houston and Robert Bates wrote different chapters, and it was indicated who wrote which ones at the beginning of each one. One or two of the last chapters was(were) written by George Bell, another member of the team who had frostbitten feet and had to be carried back to "civilization," to give his viewpoint of the trek out from the mountain range. This did not break up the flow of the book at all in my opinion.

[Ciprian Ungur · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5. Their journey on K2, even though they didn't reach the summit, is almost fantastic. They left as a team and came back as a brotherhood, forged in the storms and challenges of the "Mountain of Mountains". Excellent journal-like story, well written and with so many relevant details that I could almost picture everything they went through. I can only imagine their ordeal for that's where I will leave it: to imagination. Even though I love mountains, I could never hope of reaching such exotic realms and accomplish such feats as those made by the members of the 1953 American Expedition to K2. Yet through this book I went up K2 and came down with them...

Fully recommended.

[Brendan Sempf · Rating 4 out of 5]

K2 was the first I had heard about any mountaineering journey, and I have to say it was an extremely informative memoir on not only the dangers of K2 but the exact supplies needed to endure such a feat. This is a great read if you are looking to better understand the intricacies of climbing or just are interested in learning more about K2 specifically!

[julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Melisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent first hand account of one of the early American Expeditions to K2. I enjoyed reading the different narrators and how the story flowed. It is a story of survival and adventure. I enjoyed the cohesiveness of the team of climbers, and how they looked out for each other.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 stars for the writing, 4 stars for the excitement, which, of course curves out to 4 stars.

As I continue with my reading through of mountaineering titles in the library, I ran across this recounting of the 1953 American attempt to reach the summit of K2, the world's second highest peak. K2 is about 900 miles from Everest in the Karakoram range In 1938, a group had made it to within about 1000 feet of the top, but were forced back by bad weather. Storms were to plague the 1953 expedition also.

The difference in how the teams were assembled and how they are collected today is significant. . K2 differs from Everest in that it requires a multitude of climbing skills: snow and rock. Everest requires mostly snow climbing skill. K2 destroyed specialists. They were also careful to pick personality types. (today all it takes is money to get on an expedition to Everest, it seems.) Unable to take Sherpas along because of the still intense border conflict between India and Pakistan, they had to rely on the less experienced Hunzas, white guys being apparently unable to carry their own stuff. And, of course, they had to design much of their own clothing, unlike today's plethora of fancy gear.

Some of the writing cold have stood a good dose of editing. The story of Dudley Wolfe stranded at Camp VII during the 1938 attempt and his abortive rescue that cost the lives of two very brave Sherpas, is told from a couple of different confusing perspectives that had me flipping pages back and forth to figure out exactly what was going on. Here again, what would they do without the Sherpas, or in this case the Hunzas. It reminds me of the "intrepid" crocodile guys, ostensibly out there fighting the wilderness, nobody talking about the poor cameraman (not to mention his truckloads of equipment) who had to go first to get the great shot.

It was astonishing to me that supplies that had been left from the 1938 expedition were still in very good shape after 14 years and quite useable. The explanation was the cold and dryness of the air. Lots of snow though - and wind. Another thing that surprised me was no discussion of oxygen. They didn't have any. On recent Everest climbs, oxygen and the resultant detritus of oxygen bottles, thousands of them, is a big deal. Houston and Bates and the rest of the K2 climbers seem to have acclimated much better than any on the Everest expeditions.

Finally, at Camp VIII, they were ready for an assault on the summit. The idea was to send two climbers to the summit, keeping their names anonymous, in the spirit of teamwork (can you imagine that today?) Vicious storms arose with hurricane force winds and lots of snow. They were stuck in their tents, unable to do anything except struggle to make tea and stay reasonably warm. Then the unexpected happened. Art developed thrombophlebitis. The danger was a clot might migrate to the lungs. He had to get off the mountain, but was unable to help. That posed a real problem for the rest of the group because it meant not only did they have to get themselves down, difficult enough with increased danger from avalanches from the new snow, they had to maneuver a sick man while climbing very difficult rock at an altitude with little oxygen. And the storms refused to abate.


I must admit that the description of the descent, hauling a man who was virtually a dead weight, lowering him down steep cliffs, in the middle of a monsoon storm, is riveting and the feat extraordinary. Well worth the minor writing deficiencies.

[Thea Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring true story of heroism, adventure, & unbroken bonds of brotherhood, even to the death. The events that transpired on this mountain in this book are a clear illustration that it's all about the journey, not the destination.

[Cory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be my favorite expedition account of the K2 books. There is something so wonderful about the collective voice that emerges from this account. The teamwork from the 1953 group and their remarkable dynamic is inspirational; despite the fact they did not make the summit.

[Faraz Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole story is survival of epic proportions but If there is anything that sums up this book so well it's Pete Schoening's belay, him saving (single-handedly) five of his team members.

[li (stupid canadian wolf bird fanatic) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had everything I wanted. Not only was it a great book with actual diaries/stories but they also HAD LISTS OF TRAVEL PLANS, ECONOMICS AND EQUIPMENT. I was in geeky heaven.

[Vincent Waldron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Savage Mountain is a book by Charles Houston and Robert Bates detailing their 1953 assault on K2. Much of the book sets up the actual climbing, detailing the collection of supplies, decisions about members of the team, and the process of getting to the base of the mountain.

In 1953, soon after the partition of India and Pakistan, the process of getting to K2 wasn't easy and this takes up the first third of the book.

From this point onward, things move more quickly. The book follows the team as they established higher camps and transported food and supplies at higher and higher positions on the mountain, finally culminating at Camp VII, somewhere around 25,800 meters elevation.

They were climbing without oxygen and interestingly, Charles Houston felt that oxygen was more bother than it was worth. If humans took their time acclimatizing, took gear higher while sleeping a little lower, they should be able to survive at high altitude long enough to summit the highest mountains on earth.

It was at this point, that the weather turned and brutal snowstorms buffeted their high mountain camp. The team was still hopeful that if there was a brief break in the weather, they could put a couple of climbers on the peak, but this was not to be. Art Gilkey developed a blood clot in his legs and then progressed to a full blown pulmonary embolism -- probably bilateral.

It seems from this point on, the team no longer thought about the summit, but rather how to get Gilkey off the mountain to where he could receive medical treatment. He was unable to walk and so they wrapped him in a tent and sleeping bag and in the middle of a storm dragged and pulled him down the toward Camp VI.

On the way down the mountain, five of the climbers became tangled and fell. Pete Schoening dug in with his ice axe and with a legendary effort performed what is now known as "The Belay."

What shines in the pages of the book is the fact that this group of men became a team. The important thing was not that one person got glory or even that someone summited, but that the team was successful together.

I read this soon after reading "The Last Blue Mountain," an expedition that Tony Streather was also a part of. I would say that the Savage Mountain is not as harrowing as The Last Blue Mountain, but has a little better pacing.

I gave them both four stars and if you have to pick an order to read them in, I would read The Savage Mountain first followed by the Last Blue Mountain.

[Peter McGinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought the 1979 edition of this book, which includes the original book plus the additional perspective of the expedition members' 25th reunion. The book is well written and interesting most of the time. The chapters are written by a few different climbers from the memorable expedition, assigned to them, presumably, because of their roles during each part of the expedition. Books about expeditions seem to be written in a less formal tone of voice these days, and in some was that makes for more exciting and engrossing reading than these older climbing books. But a lot of the issues, struggles and feelings team members deal with are changeless, so once I got used to the style, it drew me along just as well as modern efforts. It is interesting - and refreshing - that back then they chose their team With the goal of having a group that would get along and work as a team. In this era of tagging summits and stepping over climbers who are in trouble, that trait is sadly missing in a lot of more recent expeditions.

After the story is told in this edition, there are several supplementary chapters to do with the logistics of the expedition, which I confess was not very interesting to me, and then a section with the text of a recording they made sitting as a group right after the climb was over. There is the usual batch of black and white pictures of the team and the mountain.

So while this book is not in my top 5 of mountaineering books, it is one of the better ones from the fifties and I recommend it for anyone interested in the subject.

[Arno Mosikyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

QUOTES

There we were ferried across the mile of muddy, rushing water in an ancient wooden craft not unlike our canal barges. This vessel is attributed to Alexander the Great, and is said to be the very barge in which the great Greek conqueror led his armies across the river.

When men climb on a great mountain together, the rope between them is more than a mere physical aid to the ascent; it is a symbol of the spirit of the enterprise. It is a symbol of men banded together in a common effort of will and strength—not against this or that imagined foeman of the instant, but against their only true enemies: inertia, cowardice, greed, ignorance, and all weaknesses of the spirit.

Charlie Houston put it well when he said, “We entered the mountains as strangers, but we left as brothers.”

[Ignas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing style is different from most of the books I read. It's a collection of botes by different people composed and edited to look like a book. But that helps to understand that climbing the mountain does not give you much of the time to write book on the way ;)

Book itself has lots of details and appendix have even the exact numbers for all the expedition. It really does help to get strengthen the impression.

Middle part of the book is what took my attention most. Deadly adventure and it's a hard to fully imagine what it means to be there on the mountain in their situation... Although authors tryied hard to describe everything and write down feelings, thoughts.

[Jean Dupenloup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably THE definitive account of American aspirations to be the first to summit K2.

The United States had a decades-long courtship of the mountain, and one littered with tragedy and failure. They were eventually beaten to the punch by the Italians in 1954.

But in 1953, Dr. Charles Houston and co. put in a valiant effort. It this attempt that is recounted here, in vivid and detail and with striking vignettes.

The hardships and losses suffered by Dr. Houston and his comrades in the pursuit of the summit are inspiring. They form the heart of this canonic work.

[xtine]

The classic mountaineering story told by two of the climbers on the 1953 American expedition to K2. I've read about "The Belay" before but to hear it described firsthand... chills. Even though they did not reach the summit, it's one of my all time favorite mountaineering stories, of camaraderie and survival and the strength of the human spirit. (I saw K2 with my own eyeballs this summer on a trek to base camp. It's an incredibly intimidating pyramid of ice and rock. I cannot believe they climbed this with what they had, 70 years ago!!!)

[Emily Packer · Rating 5 out of 5]

K2 by Charles Houston is a compelling and deeply enjoyable mountaineering memoir that manages to be funny, fascinating, and informative all at once. Houston’s understated humor and self-awareness bring a lightness to an otherwise extreme and dangerous setting. The pacing is excellent—there’s a steady sense of forward motion without unnecessary dramatization—and the narrative never bogs down in technical detail, even while offering clear and insightful explanations of high-altitude climbing, teamwork, and decision-making under pressure.

[Wandering Wizard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple but extremely heartfelt. It is really sad to know the most enduring legacy of this expedition (the Gilkey Memorial) was the result of a cruel tragedy. However, the spirit of camaraderie and friendship coupled with a willingness to give it your all for your friends was epitomized in this ordeal and was for me the real legacy of this fateful yet unforgettable event in the history of K2 and mountaineering.

[Diana Taub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, straightforward account of the climb.

Easy read, kept me interested and wanting to know more. Even the account of items brought was interesting. So much goes into this before the trip even starts. Fascinating.

[Joey Deptula · Rating 4 out of 5]

First hand account of the leaders of the third American expedition to K2 and the trip that began the ‘Brotherhood of the Ropes’. A classic in every sense from heroic acts (Schoening) and heartbreak (Gilkey), it’s a well written story of the large scale expeditions of yesteryear

[Amy Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic (if you are in to mountaineering that is). Loved reading about Schoening and The Belay but didn't realise Molenaar's action to tie himself into the loose rope to Gilkey was so instrumental in saving the group. Also enjoyed the detailed equipment list and logistics at the end.

[DENNIS g BRUNSWICK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read

I enjoyed the book and am still amazed at the trials and tribulations these people go through. It would have been nice to have some post but still a good read.

[Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, I had trouble putting it down.

[Via · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, except for the racism.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4 stars

[Mitchell Godkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good read!