Read Online The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2 by Jennifer Jordan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jennifer Jordan
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unnecessary. Breathing in great huffs and puffs from the effort, Wiessner inched his body up the cracks and crags, leading partners Bill House and Lawrence Coveney the entire route. Nearing the top, he shouted down to his partners. While the words were unintelligible, their meaning was clear to House, who had heard them before on Waddington. The words meant “We are going to the top.”
With an odd sort of fate cementing their relationship, the next man to climb Devil’s Tower in a style which would become legendary was Jack Durrance, in September 1938. Like Wiessner, he and his partners climbed it “free”—without protective gear anchoring them to the rock in case of a fall. The line he chose to ascend was named the Durrance Route and has become the Tower’s most common ascent for today’s climbers.
Even while he was making headlines on American mountains and rock walls, Fritz remained fascinated by the mountains in remote southern Asia. Those stunning peaks were majestic, never scaled, and twice as high as anything in Europe or the American lower forty-eight, and Wiessner knew that if he succeeded in reaching even one of the summits, he would secure his future as well as a place in climbing history. He had seen the way Knowlton’s articles and book on Nanga Parbat had gained her fame and a certain measure of fortune; if he were to actually come home with a summit, he thought his story would be invaluable.
Having proven himself an able high-altitude climber on Nanga Parbat (although Willy Merkl told the president of the Alpine Club in London that he didn’t trust Wiessner on snow enough to invite him to join Germany’s 1934 attempt * ), Wiessner lobbied the American Alpine Club to give him control of America’s first major assault on K2 in 1938. However, when India finally issued a permit in October 1937, Wiessner didn’t have the money to leave. He had recently started his own business making and selling ski wax and it was struggling; to leave it for several months was financially impossible. He handed the reins over to one of his climbing partners, a young man who was in his third year of medical school at Columbia, Charles S. Houston (pronounced How-stun, like the street in lower Manhattan).
Fritz and Charlie were good friends, having spent years skiing in New Hampshire and climbing the rock walls near New Haven, Connecticut, together. Although Fritz was thirteen years older than Charlie, both were new members of the American Alpine Club, and they enjoyed each other’s company. But when Wiessner turned down the leadership of the 1938 expedition for which he had lobbied so hard, many, including Houston, suspected ulterior motives, namely that he was waiting for another team to do the Herculean work of finding the best route up the mountain, a route which Wiessner could then merely climb, saving weeks of valuable expedition time and energy. Before stepping aside, Wiessner made it clear that he wanted the 1939 permit for K2, if granted. Meanwhile, Houston assumed leadership of the 1938 attempt. Before Charlie left for the mountain, Fritz told his friend that it was much more important to come through “without the loss of life rather than a brilliant success brought through being reckless.”
Over seventy years later, Charlie Houston’s 1938 American expedition to K2 is still singled out as one of the finest in Himalayan climbing history on all fronts: the talent of its climbers, the preparation and execution of their goal, which was to ascertain the most climbable route, the hard work and careful risk management, and the cooperation, respect, and even love among the members of the team. * Except for some ugly business after the expedition involving Paul Petzoldt and an American missionary’s wife, † the team was hugely successful. Houston and Petzoldt climbed thousands of feet higher on the mountain than any man ever had, and there was speculation that they might even have made the summit if not for a
With an odd sort of fate cementing their relationship, the next man to climb Devil’s Tower in a style which would become legendary was Jack Durrance, in September 1938. Like Wiessner, he and his partners climbed it “free”—without protective gear anchoring them to the rock in case of a fall. The line he chose to ascend was named the Durrance Route and has become the Tower’s most common ascent for today’s climbers.
Even while he was making headlines on American mountains and rock walls, Fritz remained fascinated by the mountains in remote southern Asia. Those stunning peaks were majestic, never scaled, and twice as high as anything in Europe or the American lower forty-eight, and Wiessner knew that if he succeeded in reaching even one of the summits, he would secure his future as well as a place in climbing history. He had seen the way Knowlton’s articles and book on Nanga Parbat had gained her fame and a certain measure of fortune; if he were to actually come home with a summit, he thought his story would be invaluable.
Having proven himself an able high-altitude climber on Nanga Parbat (although Willy Merkl told the president of the Alpine Club in London that he didn’t trust Wiessner on snow enough to invite him to join Germany’s 1934 attempt * ), Wiessner lobbied the American Alpine Club to give him control of America’s first major assault on K2 in 1938. However, when India finally issued a permit in October 1937, Wiessner didn’t have the money to leave. He had recently started his own business making and selling ski wax and it was struggling; to leave it for several months was financially impossible. He handed the reins over to one of his climbing partners, a young man who was in his third year of medical school at Columbia, Charles S. Houston (pronounced How-stun, like the street in lower Manhattan).
Fritz and Charlie were good friends, having spent years skiing in New Hampshire and climbing the rock walls near New Haven, Connecticut, together. Although Fritz was thirteen years older than Charlie, both were new members of the American Alpine Club, and they enjoyed each other’s company. But when Wiessner turned down the leadership of the 1938 expedition for which he had lobbied so hard, many, including Houston, suspected ulterior motives, namely that he was waiting for another team to do the Herculean work of finding the best route up the mountain, a route which Wiessner could then merely climb, saving weeks of valuable expedition time and energy. Before stepping aside, Wiessner made it clear that he wanted the 1939 permit for K2, if granted. Meanwhile, Houston assumed leadership of the 1938 attempt. Before Charlie left for the mountain, Fritz told his friend that it was much more important to come through “without the loss of life rather than a brilliant success brought through being reckless.”
Over seventy years later, Charlie Houston’s 1938 American expedition to K2 is still singled out as one of the finest in Himalayan climbing history on all fronts: the talent of its climbers, the preparation and execution of their goal, which was to ascertain the most climbable route, the hard work and careful risk management, and the cooperation, respect, and even love among the members of the team. * Except for some ugly business after the expedition involving Paul Petzoldt and an American missionary’s wife, † the team was hugely successful. Houston and Petzoldt climbed thousands of feet higher on the mountain than any man ever had, and there was speculation that they might even have made the summit if not for a
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