Post-war Years
The post-war years saw a second boom in activity by the club. In the 50s, HMC alumni took part in major Himalayan expeditions. Robert "Bob" Hicks Bates and Dr. Charles Houston took part in the 1953 American Expedition to K2. It was on this expedition that Pete Schoening famously rescued six other climbers with his legendary "ice-axe belay." Bates and Houston wrote The Savage Mountain about this climb.
In the '60s the club was no less active, building, in 1963, a new cabin at the base of Huntington Ravine (still operated by the HMC to this day), as well as executing numerous ambitious Alaskan climbs. These climbs include the unrepeated first ascent of the Harvard Route on the Wickersham Wall on Denali. It was also in this period that HMC president David Roberts was involved in the tragic climb of Mount Huntington, resulting in the death of HMCer Ed Bernd. Roberts subsequently wrote about the expedition in The Mountain of My Fear, which helped establish him as one of the leading mountain writers in America.
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