Pete Schoening

Pete Schoening (July 30, 1927 - September 22, 2004) was an American mountaineer. Schoening was one of two Americans to first successfully climb Gasherbrum I in 1958, and was one of the first to summit Mount Vinson in Antarctica in 1966.

Schoening is perhaps best remembered for his heroics during "The Belay" while part of the American K2 expedition in 1953. The American team, climbing without oxygen, became trapped at over 25,000 feet on the Abruzzi Ridge. One of the expedition, Art Gilkey, developed deep venous thrombosis, followed by pulmonary embolism. The team, realizing Gilkey would surely die if not taken off the mountain immediately, began to lower Gilkey, wrapped in a sleeping bag, over treacherous rock and ice in the middle of a storm.

While attempting to traverse an ice sheet, climber George Irving Bell lost his footing, pulling Tony Streather loose. Streather fell into the rope joining Charles Houston and Bob Bates. Bates and Houston fell into the rope connecting Dee Molenaar to Gilkey. Schoening, despite already holding Gilkey on belay during the attempted traverse to Camp VII, was able, through strength and quickness and with his ice axe wedged against a boulder frozen in the mountainside, to arrest the fall of all five climbers and Gilkey.

During the team's scramble to recover from the fall and establish a forced bivouac, they discovered that Gilkey, who had been in voice contact with them, suspended still in the protective sleeping bag from a line secured on either side to ice axes, had vanished in a slide along with the supporting anchors. [Houston 208] There is some conjecture that, following Bell's fall, Gilkey cut himself loose to save the lives of his five colleagues, who were variously injured and at risk for their own safety.

The story of the expedition is told in the book "K2 — The Savage Mountain" by Charles Houston, M.D. and Robert Bates.

Schoening's actions clearly saved the lives of five of his climbing partners and were arguably among the most heroic actions in the history of mountaineering. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040928/ai_n12810778 - Schoening Obituary] ] He was awarded the David A. Sowles Memorial Award for his heroics by the American Alpine Club in 1981 as a "mountaineer who has distinguished himself, with unselfish devotion at personal risk or sacrifice of a major objective, in going to the assistance of fellow climbers imperiled in the mountains."

Books

* Houston, Charles and Bates, Robert. "K2 — The Savage Mountain" pg. 208 ISBN 1-58574-013-6

References

* [http://sport.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,10488,1319202,00.html?gusrc=rss Schoening Obituary 2]