Pete Schoening, 77; Saved Fellow Climbers From Icy Plunge on K2

Pete Schoening, an American climber whose skill and quick actions on K2, the world's second-highest peak, saved five team members from plunging to their deaths down an icy slope in 1953 -- a legendary moment in mountaineering -- has died. He was 77.

Schoening suffered from multiple myeloma and died Wednesday at his home in Kenmore, Wash., said his son, Eric.

A Seattle native who began climbing in the mid-1940s, Schoening made several first ascents of peaks in the Cascades, east of Seattle, in 1948, and in the Yukon (Mt. Augusta and King Peak's East Ridge) in 1952.

In 1958, Schoening and climber Andy Kauffman completed the first ascent of Hidden Peak (a.k.a. Gasherbrum I) in Pakistan, one of the 14 mountains in the world higher than 8,000 meters (26,246 feet).

"He and Kauffman were the only Americans to first climb an 8,000-meter peak, an accomplishment that solidified Schoening's place as one of the top American climbers of his generation," said Lloyd Athearn, deputy director of the American Alpine Club in Golden, Colo.

In 1966, Schoening, who then owned a fiberglass manufacturing company, joined nine other climbers in making the first successful ascent of 16,067-foot Mt. Vinson, the tallest peak in Antarctica.

But for all his mountain-climbing accomplishments, Schoening received the most notoriety for one thing: his role in stopping the perilous fall of his fellow climbers as they attempted to lower a stricken team member down a steep, icy slope on storm-battered K2 in 1953.

"That," Athearn said, "is one of the most dramatic moments in American mountaineering history."

Schoening was a 26-year-old University of Washington graduate with a degree in chemical engineering when he joined the Third American Karakoram Expedition to 28,250-foot K2. Known locally as Chogori, the peak was dubbed K2 by British surveyors charting Pakistan's Karakoram Range.

He was one of eight members of the expedition led by Robert H. Bates and Dr. Charles S. Houston, the only members who had ever been on K2 before. Other members included Dee Molenaar, Robert Craig, George Bell, Tony Streather and Art Gilkey.

The climbers reached base camp June 19, and on Aug. 1 they established Camp VIII, at 25,200 feet. From there, they figured it would take three days to stock one more camp before sending a two-man team to the summit.