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About the Author

Charles S. Houston, M.D. (1913–2009) and Robert H. Bates (1911–2007) organized the American expeditions to K2 in 1938 and 1953. Their other book, Five Miles High (The Lyons Press), told the account of the earlier expedition. Dr. Houston practiced internal medicine and was later a professor of medicine at the University of Vermont. Bates, a past president of the American Alpine Club, received his doctorate in English and taught at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He died on September 27, 2009.

Praise for K2, the Savage Mountain: The Classic True Story of Disaster and Survival on the World's Second-Highest Mountain…

"Houston and Bates were the first Americans to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain peak. Such an endeavor is remarkably dangerous even now, but reading of the use of equipment as simple as woolen mittens, canvas and wood packs, etc., illustrates the bravery--or perhaps foolhardiness--of such an undertaking then. Five Miles High covers their first climb in 1938 (this account was published a year later), while 1954's K2 chronicles the 1953 climb, which proved far more difficult." --Library Journal "Here is a great story, simply and grippingly told, which the glory of Everest should not be allowed to obscure." --New York Times