2009.10.03: October 3, 2009: Headlines: COS - India: Obituaries: Country Directors - India: Mountaineering: Boston Globe: India Country Director Charles S. Houston learned from K-2 trip

Peace Corps Online: Directory: India: Peace Corps India: Peace Corps India: Newest Stories: 2009.09.30: September 30, 2009: Headlines: COS - India: Obituaries: Country directors - India: Mountaineering: fivemileshigh: Obituary for India Country Director Charles Houston : 2009.10.03: October 3, 2009: Headlines: COS - India: Obituaries: Country Directors - India: Mountaineering: Boston Globe: India Country Director Charles S. Houston learned from K-2 trip

By Admin1 (admin) (98.188.147.225) on Friday, October 09, 2009 - 10:18 am: Edit Post

India Country Director Charles S. Houston learned from K-2 trip

India Country Director Charles S. Houston learned from K-2 trip

In 1936, Dr. Houston was part of the trek to the summit of 25,645-foot Nanda Devi in India, the highest mountain then climbed. In 1938, as a member of the first American expedition on K-2, he had come even closer to the summit than he did in 1953. In 1950, he was with a group that climbed the south face of Everest, blazing the trail used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to its summit three years later. After the 1953 K-2 climb, however, Dr. Houston never again climbed a mountain. His son Robin said that he was consumed with guilt over the death of his companion and that he did not think it fair to his family to take big risks again.

India Country Director Charles S. Houston learned from K-2 trip

Charles Houston, 96; climber led, learned from K-2 trip

By Douglas Martin
New York Times / October 3, 2009

Caption: Charles Houston crossing a rope bridge on his way up K2

NEW YORK - Dr. Charles S. Houston, who, motivated by what he called "the lure of unknown regions beyond the rim of experience,'' led a legendary but unsuccessful Himalayan expedition and did trailblazing research on high-altitude medicine, died Sunday in Burlington, Vt. He was 96.

In 1953, Dr. Houston led a team of eight to within 3,000 feet of the 28,251-foot summit of K-2, the second-highest mountain in the world. They expected to reach the top in two or three days.

Instead, the climbers experienced what became a famous series of harrowing events. Their heroic response came to exemplify how utterly self-sacrificing a team of mountaineers can be. Dr. Houston called it "the brotherhood of the rope.''

As a result of the high altitude, a team member developed clotting in his veins and faced death if a clot reached his lungs. The other team members knew they faced grave danger if they tried to carry him to safety, but they did not hesitate.

Connected by rope, six of them inched downward. Suddenly, five tumbled down a precipitous slope. The sixth clung to a wall of ice with an ax and used the rope to stop their fall after 300 feet, holding on for more than an hour as they worked their way to safety.

The injured man, wrapped in a sleeping bag and tent, was also saved. He was anchored to the slope while the others set up a camp nearby. But when they returned, he was gone. Most assumed he was swept away by an avalanche. But as years passed, Dr. Houston came to believe he had committed suicide to spare compatriots further risk.

In 1936, Dr. Houston was part of the trek to the summit of 25,645-foot Nanda Devi in India, the highest mountain then climbed. In 1938, as a member of the first American expedition on K-2, he had come even closer to the summit than he did in 1953. In 1950, he was with a group that climbed the south face of Everest, blazing the trail used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to its summit three years later.

After the 1953 K-2 climb, however, Dr. Houston never again climbed a mountain. His son Robin said that he was consumed with guilt over the death of his companion and that he did not think it fair to his family to take big risks again.

But Dr. Houston found other challenges. He became a leader in the study of human physiology at high altitudes, developing new understandings of how the body functions with reduced oxygen. In particular, he was among the first to study retinal bleeding at high altitudes.

In 1975, he started the International Hypoxia Symposium, which meets every two years in Alberta, Canada, and attracts scientists from all over the world. From 1962 to 1965, he was the first Peace Corps country director for India. He helped create a doctors division within the Peace Corps.

Charles Snead Houston was born in Manhattan and grew up in Great Neck, N.Y.

His son said that Dr. Houston's father, Oscar, liked walking in the mountains, but was not a technically skilled alpinist. An admiralty lawyer, the elder Houston financed his son's expeditions, often accompanying him as far as base camp.

The family loved to travel, and Dr. Houston first climbed mountains in the Alps when he was 12. While a Harvard undergraduate in 1934, he was part of the first group to climb Mount Foraker in Alaska.

After graduating from Harvard with a degree in biochemistry, he earned his medical degree in 1939 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

Dr. Houston began his study of the effects of altitude as a US Navy flight surgeon in World War II. In 1946, he led Operation Everest, a study for the Navy that used a chamber simulating high altitudes to show that humans could gradually acclimatize themselves to survive in the reduced oxygen of the highest point on earth. Nearly 40 years later, his Operation Everest II study produced 45 papers to expand that work.

Dr. Houston practiced general internal medicine in Exeter, N.H.; Aspen, Colo.; and Burlington, Vt. He wrote nearly 100 papers about high-altitude medicine, books that included tales of his alpine adventures, and repeated editions of "Going Higher: Oxygen, Man and Mountains,'' a standard work on the subject.

An Italian mountaineer, Reinhold Messner, who made the first solo ascents of Everest with no oxygen and is often cited as the greatest mountain climber of all time, said that he admired Dr. Houston's doomed 1953 expedition.

"They were decent,'' he said. "They were strong. And they failed in the most beautiful way you can imagine.''




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: October, 2009; Peace Corps India; Directory of India RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for India RPCVs; Obituaries; Country Directors - India; Mountaineering





When this story was posted in October 2009, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed

 Site Index Search PCOL with Google Contact PCOL Recent Posts Bulletin Board Open Discussion RPCV Directory Register

Oct 9, 2009: Turkmenistan Denies Entry to PCVs Date: October 9 2009 No: 1422 Oct 9, 2009: Turkmenistan Denies Entry to PCVs
Turkmenistan denies entry to PCVs 9 Oct
Obituary for India Country Director Charles Houston 30 Sep
PCVs in Samoa are Safe after Tsunami 30 Sep
PCV Joseph Chow dies in accident in Tanzania 23 Sep
Aaron Oldenburg creates Peace Corps game 15 Sep
Chris Siegler helps rebuild Sierra Leone 10 Sep
Diana Kingston establishes bakery in Uganda 9 Sep
Beverly Pheto is top staffer on House Appropriations 8 Sep
Aaron Williams visits Dominican Republic 3 Sep
McKenzie Boekhoelder supports Sustainable Farming 24 Aug
Thomas Hollowell writes "Allah's Garden" 19 Aug
Scott Stossel writes: Eunice the Formidable 14 Aug
Peace Corps Program suspended in Mauritania 12 Aug
Jenny Phillips uses meditation to help convicts 11 Aug
Jim Turner operates the Hobbit House in Manila 10 Aug
Shelton Johnson in Ken Burns' New Documentary 7 Aug
Steve Gall is a Recess Freak 5 Aug
Scheper-Hughes reports Illegal Organ Trafficking 29 Jul
Tucker Childs Preserves West African Languages 27 Jul
Ambassador Hill gives Tough Love to Iraq 22 Jul
Lynee Moquete builds homes in DR 21 Jul
Time in Tunisia best years of Ken Dorph's life 18 Jul

Memo to Incoming Director Williams Date: August 24 2009 No: 1419 Memo to Incoming Director Williams
PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams

Join Us Mr. President! Date: June 26 2009 No: 1380 Join Us Mr. President!
"We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .

Meet Aaron Williams - Our Next Director Date: July 30 2009 No: 1411 Meet Aaron Williams - Our Next Director
Senator Dodd's Senate Subcommittee held confirmation hearings for Aaron Williams to become the 18th Peace Corps Director. "It's exciting to have a nominee who served in the Peace Corps and also has experience in international development and management," said Dodd as he put Williams on the fast track to be confirmed by the full Senate before the August recess. Read our exclusive coverage of the hearings and our biography of Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams.



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Boston Globe

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - India; Obituaries; Country Directors - India; Mountaineering

PCOL45017
75


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: