Charles Snead Houston

1. Charlie climbing gently over Bob Bates on Mt. Crillon, Alaska in 1933 while Ad Carter belays.

2. Three of the movers of the first ascent of Nand a Devi in 1936, the highest mountain climbed until Annapuma fourteen years later: L to r: Bill Tilman, Pasang Kikuli, Charles Houston. (Hornbein Collection)

3. The Nanda Devi team at base camp: L to r: Bill Tilman, W. F. Loomis, T. Graham Brown, Charles Houston, Peter Lloyd, Noel Odell, Arthur Emmons, H. Adams Carter. (From The Ascent of Nanda Devi, by Bill Tilman)

4. Lieutenant Charles Houston, M.D. U.S. Naval Reserve, Jacksonville, Florida, 1942.

5. Researcher Houston overseeing the hypobaric chamber for Operation Everest in 1946. Naval 'volunteers' were acclimatised over six weeks to function at abarometric pressure equivalent to that at the summit of Everest, fueling Charlie's conviction that humans might reach the highest point on Earth without the aid of supplemental oxygen.

6. Charlie Houston modeling a Balti/Hunza hat at the beginning of the 1953 American K2 expedition. (Hornbein Collection)

7. The openers of the southern, Nepal approach to Everest 1950: L to r; Andy Bakewell, Oscar Houston (Charlie's father), Betsy Cowles, Bill Tilman, Charlie. Tillman and the younger Houston were the first to lay eyes upon the infamous Icefall.

8. Playing dentist: Charlie has extracted Bob Bates infected tooth at Camp II, July 10, 1953. (From Schoening, K2 1953 book)

9. Last dirt removal in a cold stream near Askole's hot springs en route to K2 base camp in 1953. The dignified expedition leader is somewhat sheltered from the sun if not the camera by what would become a hi storical item, his expedition red umbrella. (From Schoening, K2 1953 book)

10. Bob Craig (left) and Charlie in tent high on K2 in 1953. (From Schoening, K2 1953 book)

11. The third American Karakoram expedition. Team in Skardu, Pakislan, June 1953: L to r; (rear) Tony Streather, Charlie Houston, Bob Craig, George Bell, Bill White (with NBC), Pete Schoening, Bob Bates; (front) Dee Molenaar, Art Gilkey, Lt Zaffir (local military interpreter) and Col. Ata-Ullah. (From Schoening, K2 1953 book)

12. The 1953 K2 team, 50th reunion, Keystone, Colorado 2003 : L to r: Dee Molenaar, Pete Schoening, Bob Bates, Charlie Houston, Bob Craig, Tony Streather. As of August 2010, Craig, Molenaar and Streather are the last surviving. (Rob Roach Collection)

13. Tom Hornbein congratulates Dr. Houston after one of many honors, an honorary PhD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in May 2006. (Rob Roach Collection)

14. Charlie Houston and Bern adette McDonald, author of his biography, Brotherhood of the Rope, at the 2007 HYPOXIA Conference, which he began in 1979. (Tom Hombein)

15. Charlie and Reinhold Messner at the Trento Film Festival in 2004. The umbrella was found by the Italian expedition in 1954 during the course of their first ascent and was returned to Charlie a half century later to his great delight. (Harish Kapadia)

16. Charlie toasting the editor of the Himalayan Journal at the time he was elected to honorary membership in the American Alpine Club at its annual meeting in 2006. (Harish Kapadia)