The life of American mountaineer and pioneer of high-altitude medicine Dr Charles Houston has been marked in obituaries in the British press. Houston died on 27 September, aged 96.

In 1936, Houston co-led the celebrated expedition to Nanda Devi in northern India, which saw British climbers H.W. Tilman and Noel Odell be the first to summit Nanda Devi - the highest mountain to be climbed at that time.

Houston led two landmark attempts on K2; one in 1938 and the other in 1953 which involved an heroic retreat.  Following this epic attempt, Houston hung up his mountain boots and turned his attention to focus on trailblazing the study of human physiology at high altitude. His work developing the understanding of how the body functions with reduced oxygen will remain his lasting legacy for mountaineers and trekkers.

BMC honorary medical adviser David Hillebrandt said: “As a climber and before I trained in medicine I was well aware of the legendary Anglo American first ascent of Nanda Devi with Charles Houston in the team with Tilman. Soon after I qualified, Charles Houston published his groundbreaking book “Going High” later to become “Going Higher” which, for the first time, explained the medical risks of high altitude climbing in lay terms."

"I was fortunate to be in the audience at the Climbers Club centenary dinner when he enthralled the audience in a storm lashed marquee in Llanberis. However, it was not until Bernadette McDonald wrote his biography “Brotherhood of the Rope” that I fully appreciated what an outstanding man he was in terms of his General Practice skills, his research skills, his organizational skills and his climbing skills, all set against a background of amazing modesty.”

Read full obituaries in the Independent, Guardian, Telegraph, Times and on UKClimbing.com

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