Meeting His Match

In 1954 an Italian team reached the summit of K2, benefiting from the work of the climbers who went before them to find a route up the mountain. Bates was busy with other things that summer-his marriage to Gail Oberlin, a fellow climber and secretary of the Alpine Club. Gail Bates, who had spent time in the Alps and the Rockies, possessed a love of travel and adventure that made her a perfect match for the 43-year-old bachelor. "Ohio was too flat," she says of the state where she grew up. "When I was young, I climbed trees, church steeples, anything I could. Bob and I always agreed on how to travel. I had no problem with sleeping on the ground."

Gail Bates says, in all seriousness, that she "settled down" when she married Bob Bates, but most people wouldn't use such terminology to describe a shared life that has taken them from Kathmandu to the Mountains of the Moon in Africa. Typical of their trips was a visit to former student Bob Dodson, then living and working in Turkey. They made a 1,500-mile journey across the country by car with Dodson and his family to climb Mount Ararat. Later, they stayed with Dodson again when he was living in Morocco.

In 1999, George Russell '59 (middle photo, right) endowed a professorship in honor of Bob Bates (second from right, with Principal Ty Tingley and the first Bates-Russell Professor, Peter Greer '58). During World War II, Bates (bottom photo, center) tested cold-weather gear in Alaska for the War Department.

"Of all the visitors I had in Morocco, they were the only ones who said, 'We want to know where the bus terminal is.' I didn't even know where the terminal was, but they were determined to travel by bus," Dodson remembers. "They knew what the bus would be like-the woman in the seat next to them could have one or more children on her lap and a couple of live chickens under her seat, and it could take forever. That's exactly what they wanted."

From 1962 to 1963, the Bateses lived in Nepal, directing the first Peace Corps group to that country. This deepened their love for Nepal, a relationship with the country and its people first begun in 1954 that continues to this day. They became friends with the Crown Prince of Nepal and attended his coronation when he was made king in 1975. Another trek took them to Chile, where they participated in an expedition to determine the height of the country's highest peak, Ojos del Salado. And in 1974, they returned to K2, hiking into base camp at the foot of the great peak.

It should come as no surprise that the Bateses continue to travel, despite what some might consider advanced age. On the afternoon I visited, they were busy making arrangements to fly off to Costa Rica by themselves for two weeks. The day after their return, they would be off again, for the 100th anniversary of the American Alpine Club in Boston. Bates serves as the club's honorary president. "We enjoy doing this sort of thing, visiting friends," Bates says about the trip to Costa Rica, a tame destination compared to those of the past. "And we thought it would be nice to get warm."

In 1985, at the age of 74, Bates participated in his last major expedition, joining an American-Chinese team for the first successful climb of Ulugh Muztagh, on the Tibetan border. The expedition was the fruit of years of planning and a long-held dream to explore "the great ice mountain."

At Exeter, the legacy of Bates' teaching lives on in the Bates-Russell Distinguished Faculty Professorship, established in 1999 by his student and lifelong friend, George Russell. The endowed position, which Bates was instrumental in defining, provides time away from the classroom for an Academy instructor to undertake special projects and independent research related to teaching at Exeter and educational initiatives at other schools and colleges. Peter Greer '58, instructor in English, is the first Bates-Russell Professor. "I'm just one student out of roughly 3,000 who were privileged to learn from Bob Bates," Russell notes. "I wanted to establish the professorship in his honor, but he insisted that my name go on it, too. I only know one Bob Bates. There must be others out there who are as caring, compassionate and down-to-earth, but I don't know anyone else like him."

In 1954, Bates married Gail Oberlin, a fellow climber and secretary of the Alpine Club. Their shared life has taken them from Kathmandu to the Mountains of the Moon in Africa.

In more than 50 years of climbing, Bates came close to losing his life on more than one occasion and endured privations hard for the uninitiated to imagine. The title of his autobiography, published in 1994, gives a clear and simple answer to the question of why. The book is titled The Love of Mountains Is Best, a phrase he took from an inscription carved in Greek at the summit of a Swiss peak by an unknown climber back in the 16th century.

Philosophical about the dangers of mountaineering and why he chose to undertake them, Bates says, "No mountain is worth a human life. There's no question about that. If we didn't think we were up to it, we wouldn't have done it. It was a calculated risk. You had to bet on your ability to overcome that risk, and you had to believe absolutely in your companions."

Bates begins his autobiography with the words: "One reason mountains have been best for me is because they have brought me my mountain friends. . . ." In the end, the real story of Bob Bates is not the mountains he has climbed, but the legions of friends he has made and students he has influenced. It is his love for people as much as his love for mountains that shines through a life well-lived.

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