Brotherhood of Rope

BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROPE. The Biography of Charles Houston. By Bernadette McDonald. Pp. 250, 51 b/w photos, sketches, 2007. Includes a DVD of the film Brotherhood of the Rope. (The Mountaineers Books, Seattle, $18.95).

I first met Charlie (as he insists on being called) at Trento, Italy. Recognising him, I invited myself to his dinner table, for you do not have chance to dine with history often. As I arrived, his vision being weak, he recognised me by name and for next four days I followed him and we talked and talked. I began to have some insight into his extraordinary life. The missing gaps have been filled by this book by McDonald, which many mountaineers and doctors would like to read. The book beautifully weaves the story of Charlie’s life; his young days, how interest in mountains and medicines developed and how that grew in to a raison d’être of his life. The story of his life reads like a fairy tale, like that of a child of destiny.

Charlie climbed in the Alps in 1931 with his father Oscar, who was a major influence in his life in the mountains. Soon after that, he was admitted to Harvard and joined the Harvard Mountaineering School. He with Bob Bates, Adams Carter, Bradford Washburn and Terries Moore, were known as the ‘Harvard Five’. Each went on to make a name for himself. Once on a trip to the Alps, Charlie saw a man climbing and said to him ‘we speak the same language’, ‘Possibly’ was the laconic reply from that British mountaineer T. Graham Brown. This chance meeting was to lead to their teaming up for the expedition to Nanda Devi. In Charlie’s words ‘four American kids and four British Himalayan veterans joined to make a successful climb of the peak in 1936.’ Until now most of the accounts of Nanda Devi are from the perspective of the British. It is with this account that we come to know the American view. Charlie fell sick and did not climb high. However in the latter part he crossed the Longstaff Col to make an exit to the Milam valley. In two year’s time, 1938, Charlie came to K2 on his first expedition. ‘I was Kim….. I was living in Kipling’s India: indeed I was on my way to the very land described in The Man who would be the King,’ wrote Charlie. The expedition could not reach the summit but they had pioneered a route for the future. Soon the world was in turmoil, about to go to war. Charlie ‘slept through the gathering storm.’ Later he was commissioned by the Navy and his first reaction was ‘Boy the navy is pretty great’. However, his ‘uncompromising attitude and blunt honesty’ soon landed him in trouble. By this time Charlie was an established doctor and his pioneering interest in High Altitude Medicine began to develop. He was on Everest in 1950 and returned to K2 in 1952. The story of this expedition is well known, where the climbers risked their lives to save the life of one sick friend. This is what he called the Brotherhood of the Rope and the book offers a DVD of this film with it.

On his return from K2, life in high mountains was almost over. Ardito Desio and his Italian team made the first ascent of K2 about which Charlie said, ‘Desio’s triumph seemed a violation of (my) mountain’. He was cruel to himself, ‘I never quite came through on the prominence : Crillon I missed, Nanda Devi I missed, K2 I missed twice, Everest I didn’t try’. It was this frankness and attitude to life that endeared him to a generation of mountaineers. While on K2, Charlie had left a colourful umbrella at the last camp. The Italians brought back this as a memento and returned it to him ! At Trento, Charlie climbed the steps to the podium with this umbrella open and promised to leave it to the Italians in his will ! The claps of admiration almost brought down the house!

His destiny was soon to a take a turn. His family counted as friends some of the high and mighty of American politics, who knew Charlie’s worth. One of them was Robert McNamara who became the Secretary of Defence. When the ‘Peace Corps’ project was launched (where young Americans would serve in Asia) Charlie was approached to pitch in. Mindful of his family commitments and medical interests he relented only after repeated persuasion by Sergeant Shiver who was in charge. That saw Charlie in India for an energetic three years. He travelled the entire country and met many interesting people. When the Peace Corps was enlarged into medical services for Asia, Dr Houston was in charge and in his typical fashion he made a presentation titled ‘Urine and Jasmine’ – the bitter and sweet !

Back home he was made an offer for high altitude research, a subject dear to his heart – at an high altitude research laboratory high on Mount Logan. He was the first to think that Everest could be climbed without supplementary oxygen and admired Messner and Habeler for proving him right in 1978. McDonald, who gave up her job at the Banff Center to turn into a full time writer, has written a lucid account of such a wonderful and eventful life. We owe her gratitude for preserving this legacy through this book. She takes us to the end, sensitively and beautifully. Gazing out across the frozen lake, tears well up in Charlie’s unseeing eyes. As he confronts the death that he knows can’t be far off, he is not afraid. He savors a life that has been full of love and adventure and of challenges met. His tears are not of fear, sadness, anger or regret. They are tears that spring from a deep well of contentment – a life intensely lived.

The second time I met Charlie was at Attitash during the annual meeting of the American Alpine Club. Charlie, then 92, had travelled a couple of hundred miles, driven by his friend Tom Horbein who was in his 80s! I invited him to Mumbai. ‘I will be a bit of nuisance Harish’ he said with a chuckle. Then he paid the greatest compliment to India by saying, ‘I feel very Indian inside due to the years I have spent there and in Asia. That country has grown in me over the years.’ I was keen to know all about his time here, and this book tells it to me in a readable way. As we departed I bowed with a namaste to him as we do in India to elders and masters of any field. Knowing the Indian tradition he bowed a little, we embraced and laughed. I hope to meet him again for just such moments. If not, I have a signed copy of this book to keep my memories alive.

HARISH KAPADIA