1953 American Karakoram expedition
The expedition has been widely praised for the courage shown by the climbers in their attempt to save Gilkey, and for the team spirit and the bonds of friendship it fostered.
Charles Houston's 1938 expedition had established the feasibility of the Abruzzi Spur as a route to the summit, reaching the Shoulder at 8000 m, before retreating due to diminishing supplies and the threat of bad weather.
[6][7] Fritz Wiessner's attempt on the 1939 American Karakoram expedition went even higher but ended in disaster when four men disappeared high on the mountain.
Given the technical difficulty of the Abruzzi Spur it was therefore impractical to use porters to carry loads high on the mountain, so it was planned to use them only as far as Camp II.
[12] Additionally the steepness of the Abruzzi Spur meant there was limited flat space for tents, and camp sites to accommodate large numbers of climbers would be difficult to find.
Other talented climbers, such as Willi Unsoeld, Paul Petzoldt and Fritz Wiessner himself were controversially not included because it was not felt that they would get on with the rest of the team.
The budget of $32,000 came from the team members themselves, some gifts, advances paid by the National Broadcasting Company and the Saturday Evening Post for a film and a series of newspaper articles, as well as significant loans.
[14] The expedition assembled in Rawalpindi at the end of May, flew on to Skardu, and after the long trek through Askole and up the Baltoro Glacier, arrived at the base of K2 on 20 June.
The tragedies on Nanga Parbat in 1934 and K2 in 1939 had convinced Houston of the importance of keeping all camps well stocked at all times in case the expedition had to retreat in bad weather.
[23][24] However, the unacceptable avalanche risk followed by a renewal of the storm prevented a descent at that time, and the team remained at Camp VIII for several more days in the hope that the weather would improve.
[25] By 10 August the situation had become critical: Gilkey was showing signs of pulmonary embolism and deteriorating quickly, and the whole team was still trapped at an altitude that would have eventually killed them all.
On a makeshift stretcher made from canvas, ropes and a sleeping bag, Gilkey was pulled or lowered down steep terrain, until the team reached a point where they could traverse a difficult ice slope to their Camp VII, at around 7,500 metres (24,600 ft).
Quickly wrapping the rope around his shoulders and ice axe, Schoening held all six climbers, preventing them from falling into the Godwin-Austen Glacier.
[28] Authors such as Jim Curran have suggested that Gilkey's death, while tragic, undoubtedly saved the lives of the rest of the team, who were now free to concentrate on their own survival.
[30] Clothing and human remains, positively identified as Gilkey,[34] were discovered close to K2 Base Camp in 1993 by an expedition led by British mountaineer Roger Payne.
[35] Houston remarked that "we entered the mountain as strangers, but we left it as brothers",[39] while Bates would later say that "the Brotherhood of the Rope established on K2 outlasted the expedition by many decades and was based on a shared sense of values, interests and mutual respect and affection".
[43] Schoening's action in arresting the mass fall has itself achieved iconic status, and is known in American climbing circles simply as "The Belay".
