Brotherhood of the Rope: The Biography of Charles Houston

This was a long-overdue book on one of America’s great mountain heroes. Charlie Houston led an amazingly full life - mountaineer, high-altitude physiologist, family doctor, educator, mentor, and more. Through extensive interviews and research, McDonald traces Houston’s life and career. His early climbs in the Alps, on Mount Crillon, Foraker, and Nanda Devi were the basis for his ground-breaking attempts on K2 in 1938 and 1953. The expedition’s decision-making in 1953 has set the standard for ‘brotherhood’ in the mountains and is itself a classic story.

Houston’s groundbreaking medical experiments on altitude and the human body helped calibrate the nation's WWII air-assault strategy and shorten the war. This is the man personally recruited by Sergeant Shriver to lead the first Peace Corps programs in India; the friend who Bill Moyers credits with saving his life; the physician who built some of the first artificial-heart prototypes in his garage. With an introduction by Tom Hornbein. Included with this Special Edition hardcover is a DVD documentary with historical footage of the 1953 expedition to K2.

Winner 2007 Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature from the Himalayan Club.