Five Miles High: The Thrilling True Story of the First American Expedition to K2. This item is unavailable.Five Miles High: The Thrilling True Story of the First American Expedition to K2

This is the epic account of the 1938 American Karakoram expedition to the summit of K2, a climb considered more treacherous and difficult than Everest. Equipped with the most "modern" gear available to them--wool mittens, canvas tents, and buckle-up, leather-strapped cramp-ons--this group of young men set out to surmount the insurmountable. A four-month-long journey would take them nearly 27,000 feet above sea level and hundreds of miles from any sign of humanity.

With a shrewd wit and a survivalist's sense of determination, four of the six climbers provide an intimate and gripping account of their adventures, evoking all the terror, excitement, and pure exaltation of standing, five miles high, on a part of the globe where no person has stood before.

Charles Houston and Robert Bates organized the American expeditions to K2 in 1938 and 1953. Houston, a doctor of internal medicine, teaches at the University of Vermont. Bates, a past president of the American Alpine Club, received his doctorate in English and taught at Phillips Exeter Academy for many years.