Robert Bates (mountaineer)
Encyclopedia
Robert Hicks Bates was an American
mountaineer
, author
and teacher
, who is best remembered for his parts in the first ascent
of Mount Lucania
and the American expeditions to K2
in 1938 and 1953.
. He briefly attended the William Penn Charter School
, and then Phillips Exeter Academy
. He attended Harvard University
from 1929 to 1935. At Harvard he was a member of the Harvard Mountaineering Club
and with Charles Houston
, Adams Carter
, Bradford Washburn
and Terris Moore
was part of the group of climbers later known as the "Harvard Five" who would push forward the standards of American mountaineering in the 1930s.
, which was then the highest unclimbed mountain in North America
. It was also one of the most remote and inaccessible and had been declared "virtually impregnable". The pair enlisted the aid of the pilot Robert Reeve
to fly them to the mountain, but when they landed on the Walsh Glacier
the aeroplane sank into the unexpectedly soft snow. After they had spent five days digging it out Reeve departed, warning Bates and Washburn that he would not be able to return to collect them as planned and that they would have to walk back to civilization. The pair climbed Mount Lucania, and the nearby Mount Steele
, and were then faced with a 100 miles (160.9 km) trek through wilderness to Burwash Landing, without maps. They abandoned some of their food to save weight, expecting to restock at a cache left behind by an earlier expedition. However, the cache had been plundered by bear
s, and Bates and Washburn survived on mushroom
s and squirrel
s during the trek out. Flooded rivers forced them to detour many miles out of their way, and they had eventually walked an estimated 156 by the time they reached Burwash Landing, 32 days after arriving on the glacier. The two men lost around twenty pounds
each during the walk out.
. The expedition failed due to bad weather and the sickening of Art Gilkey
, but was widely praised for the courage shown by the team in their unsuccessful attempt to save Gilkey. During the descent, Bates and five other climbers were involved in a near-fatal fall, saved only by the strength of Pete Schoening
, who was the last man on the rope. Bates later received the David A. Sowles Memorial Award
for his part in the attempted rescue.
and was assigned to the Office of the Quartermaster general
, where he worked on the development of improved equipment and clothing for the army's mountain divisions. He recruited a skilled wartime team that included mountaineers William P. House, Bestor Robinson
, H. Adams Carter
, Terris Moore
, Bradford Washburn
and Australian arctic explorer Hubert Wilkins
. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
and awarded a Bronze Star
and the Legion of Merit
.
After the war, Bates taught English
at Phillips Exeter Academy
. He continued mountaineering throughout his life, and at the age of 74 led an expedition which made the first ascent of Ulugh Muztagh
in China
. He also spent a year in Kathmandu directing a Peace Corps
project, and served as President of the American Alpine Club
, which awards the Robert Hicks Bates Award to promising young climbers in his honour.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, who is best remembered for his parts in the first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
of Mount Lucania
Mount Lucania
Mount Lucania is the third highest mountain located entirely in Canada. A long ridge connects Mt. Lucania with Mount Steele , the fifth highest in Canada. Lucania was named by the Duke of Abruzzi, as he stood on the summit of Mount Saint Elias on July 31, 1897, having just completed the first accent...
and the American expeditions to K2
K2
K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest...
in 1938 and 1953.
Early life
Bates was born in Philadelphia and was the son of William Bates, a classical scholar at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. He briefly attended the William Penn Charter School
William Penn Charter School
William Penn Charter School is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1689 by William Penn...
, and then Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
. He attended Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
from 1929 to 1935. At Harvard he was a member of the Harvard Mountaineering Club
Harvard Mountaineering Club
The Harvard Mountaineering Club is an undergraduate organization of Harvard College. Founded in 1924, the HMC is one of the oldest college mountaineering clubs in the USA, with a long record of exploratory mountaineering.-Early history:...
and with Charles Houston
Charles Snead Houston
-References:-External links:* - Daily Telegraph obituary* Independent obituary, 1 October 2009.-Notes:...
, Adams Carter
H. Adams Carter
Hubert Adams "Ad" Carter was an American mountaineer, language teacher and was editor of the American Alpine Journal for 35 years....
, Bradford Washburn
Bradford Washburn
Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr. was an American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939–1980, and from 1985 until his death served as its Honorary Director .Washburn is especially noted for exploits in four...
and Terris Moore
Terris Moore
Terris Moore was an explorer, mountaineer, light plane pilot, and the second president of the University of Alaska....
was part of the group of climbers later known as the "Harvard Five" who would push forward the standards of American mountaineering in the 1930s.
Mount Lucania
In 1937 Bates, with Bradford Washburn, made the first ascent of Mount Lucania in YukonYukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
, which was then the highest unclimbed mountain in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. It was also one of the most remote and inaccessible and had been declared "virtually impregnable". The pair enlisted the aid of the pilot Robert Reeve
Robert Campbell Reeve
Robert Campbell Reeve was the founder of Reeve Aleutian Airways.-Childhood:Bob Reeve was born in Waunakee, Wisconsin on March 27, 1902. He was one of twins, his brother was Richard. Their parents were Hubert and Mae Reeve. Mae died in 1904, and their father remarried, leaving the boys to fend for...
to fly them to the mountain, but when they landed on the Walsh Glacier
Walsh Glacier
Walsh Glacier is a tributary glacier in the central part of Wilson Hills. It drains east-northeast along the south side of Goodman Hills to enter the lower part of Tomilin Glacier. Mapped by United States Geological Survey from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1960-64...
the aeroplane sank into the unexpectedly soft snow. After they had spent five days digging it out Reeve departed, warning Bates and Washburn that he would not be able to return to collect them as planned and that they would have to walk back to civilization. The pair climbed Mount Lucania, and the nearby Mount Steele
Mount Steele
Mount Steele is the fifth highest mountain in Canada and the eleventh highest peak in North America. A lower southeast peak of Mt. Steele stands at 4,300m ....
, and were then faced with a 100 miles (160.9 km) trek through wilderness to Burwash Landing, without maps. They abandoned some of their food to save weight, expecting to restock at a cache left behind by an earlier expedition. However, the cache had been plundered by bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
s, and Bates and Washburn survived on mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s and squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
s during the trek out. Flooded rivers forced them to detour many miles out of their way, and they had eventually walked an estimated 156 by the time they reached Burwash Landing, 32 days after arriving on the glacier. The two men lost around twenty pounds
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
each during the walk out.
K2
In 1937, Charles Houston invited Bates on an expedition to K2, the world's second highest mountain. It was the first expedition to the mountain for nineteen years, and while the focus was on reconnaissance and assessing the feasibility of different routes, Bates was part of a group which reached within 800 m of the summit on the Abruzzi Spur, which would become the preferred route on the mountain. Bates and Houston returned to K2 with a new expedition in 1953Third American Karakoram Expedition
The 1953 American Karakoram Expedition was a mountaineering expedition to K2, at 8,611 metres the second highest mountain on Earth. It was the fifth expedition to attempt K2, and the first since the Second World War...
. The expedition failed due to bad weather and the sickening of Art Gilkey
Art Gilkey
Art Gilkey was an American geologist and mountaineer. He explored Alaska in 1950 and 1952. He died during a 1953 American expedition to K2. Approaching the summit of the peak, he suffered from thrombophlebitis or possibly deep venous thrombosis, followed by pulmonary embolism...
, but was widely praised for the courage shown by the team in their unsuccessful attempt to save Gilkey. During the descent, Bates and five other climbers were involved in a near-fatal fall, saved only by the strength of Pete Schoening
Pete Schoening
Peter K. Schoening was an American mountaineer. Schoening was one of two Americans to first successfully climb the Pakistani peak Gasherbrum I in 1958, and was one of the first to summit Mount Vinson in Antarctica in 1966. He was born July 30, 1927, in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in...
, who was the last man on the rope. Bates later received the David A. Sowles Memorial Award
David A. Sowles Memorial Award
The David A. Sowles Memorial Award is the American Alpine Club's highest award for valour, bestowed at irregular intervals on mountaineers who have "distinguished themselves, with unselfish devotion at personal risk or sacrifice of a major objective, in going to the assistance of fellow climbers...
for his part in the attempted rescue.
Wartime and after
During the Second World War Bates served in the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and was assigned to the Office of the Quartermaster general
Quartermaster general
A Quartermaster general is the staff officer in charge of supplies for a whole army.- The United Kingdom :In the United Kingdom, the Quartermaster-General to the Forces is one of the most senior generals in the British Army...
, where he worked on the development of improved equipment and clothing for the army's mountain divisions. He recruited a skilled wartime team that included mountaineers William P. House, Bestor Robinson
Bestor Robinson
Bestor Robinson was a California mountaineer, environmentalist, attorney and inventor. He was a law partner of Earl Warren, later governor of California and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Robinson was a long time leader of the Sierra Club...
, H. Adams Carter
H. Adams Carter
Hubert Adams "Ad" Carter was an American mountaineer, language teacher and was editor of the American Alpine Journal for 35 years....
, Terris Moore
Terris Moore
Terris Moore was an explorer, mountaineer, light plane pilot, and the second president of the University of Alaska....
, Bradford Washburn
Bradford Washburn
Henry Bradford Washburn, Jr. was an American explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939–1980, and from 1985 until his death served as its Honorary Director .Washburn is especially noted for exploits in four...
and Australian arctic explorer Hubert Wilkins
Hubert Wilkins
Sir Hubert Wilkins MC & Bar was an Australian polar explorer, ornithologist, pilot, soldier, geographer and photographer.-Early life:...
. He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of major and just below the rank of colonel. It is equivalent to the naval rank of commander in the other uniformed services.The pay...
and awarded a Bronze Star
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
and the Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
.
After the war, Bates taught English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
. He continued mountaineering throughout his life, and at the age of 74 led an expedition which made the first ascent of Ulugh Muztagh
Ulugh Muztagh
Ulugh Muztagh or Ulugh Muztag and Muztag Feng , is an extremely remote mountain group on the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Located on the border between the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, it is part of the main range of the Kunlun Mountains of East-Central...
in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. He also spent a year in Kathmandu directing a Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
project, and served as President of the American Alpine Club
American Alpine Club
The American Alpine Club, or AAC, was founded in 1902 by Charles Ernest Fay, and is the leading national organization in the United States devoted to mountaineering, climbing, and the multitude of issues facing climbers...
, which awards the Robert Hicks Bates Award to promising young climbers in his honour.