Peak Experiences


Instructor emeritus Robert H. Bates '29 has spent his life climbing the world's highest mountains, and inspiring his legions of friends and former students with his example.

—By Katherine Towler

Fifty years ago this June, Robert H. Bates set out with seven other men to conquer K2, the second-highest peak in the world. It was not his first attempt to climb what he would call, in the title from the book he later published, "the savage mountain." Nor would it be the last of many expeditions that took him to remote and perilous mountaintops from Alaska to China. An instructor in English at the Academy from 1939 to 1976, Bates is legendary in mountain-climbing circles for his exploits in the days when most of the world's high peaks were virgin territory and no one had heard of Gortex. At Exeter he is a legend as well, remembered by generations of students for his generosity and guidance-and for the trips he led to the White Mountains, which influenced many graduates to push themselves harder and higher in pursuit of their own personal goals.

On a first meeting, Bob Bates would not strike you as a risk-taker. A modest and unassuming man, he answers almost any question about his illustrious career with the quip, "That was so much fun." Bates is 92 years old and moves a bit more slowly these days, but he remains vitally connected to a world of people-old friends and new-and recalls his climbing expeditions in vivid detail. On a winter afternoon we talked at his apartment in Exeter, where he and Gail, his wife of 49 years, entertain a stream of visitors (including, on the previous day, a crew of Italian photographers) and live surrounded by mementos of their travels, from Buddhist prayer flags to panoramic photos of the Himalayas.

Bob Bates (above, both photos) is a legend in mountaineering circles, and the subject of a new book, Escape from Lucania, an account of his 1937 ascent, with partner Brad Washburn (below), of what was then the highest unclimbed peak in North America (below).

A native of Philadelphia, Bates climbed his first mountain-Flying Mountain in Maine-when he was 5. He left home 12 years later to attend Phillips Exeter, graduating in 1929. It was as an undergraduate at Harvard, however, that his passion for mountains was born when he met classmate Brad Washburn, a climber who had already distinguished himself in the Alps. The two young men began making weekend trips to the White Mountains. Bates also joined the Harvard Mountaineering Club, becoming part of an elite group that dominated American climbing for two decades, achieving a string of firsts around the world.

After completing both a bachelor's and a master's degree in English literature at Harvard, Bates took a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania. He arrived on campus only to discover that due to declining enrollments brought on by the Depression, his courses had been canceled. He entered the Ph.D. program instead, but was called away a few months later by an offer from Brad Washburn he could not refuse. The National Geographic Society was funding an expedition to map 5,000 square miles of unexplored territory in the Yukon. With six other men, Bates helped to chart the last blank space on the map of North America.

"I think I got a bigger kick out of that than any other expedition," Bates says of those months in the Yukon. "We spent the winter with a dog team in new country where nobody had been before. We named two big mountains we found. We discovered the longest glaciers that had ever been mapped outside of the polar region."

In 1937, two years later, Bates and Washburn returned to the St. Elias mountain range, which straddles the border of Alaska and the Yukon, to climb Mount Lucania, then the highest unclimbed peak in North America.

"We called it the golden age of mountaineering: Everywhere you went, you were doing something new."

They had assembled a team of four climbers and came up with a daring strategy to fly in to a remote glacier adjoining the mountain with the help of a bush pilot and an airplane equipped with metal skis. But when Bates and Washburn reached the Walsh Glacier on the first flight in, they discovered that the ice had turned to slush, thanks to unusually warm weather. Barely able to fly out, the pilot could not return with the other climbers or more supplies. The harrowing story of how Bates and Washburn reached the summit of Lucania and then hiked 100 miles across uncharted country is recounted in Escape From Lucania by David Roberts, published in 2002. Destined to take its place among the classics of mountain-climbing literature, the book has received extensive press, including a feature on National Public Radio.

"Everywhere you went, you were doing something new. We call it the golden age of mountaineering," Bates says of the Yukon and Lucania expeditions. "That was part of the excitement-to be somewhere no one had ever been before. Today almost everything has been done."

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