Denali (Mount McKinley), Alaska, 20,320 Feet

Denali is the highest mountain in North America.

The State of Alaska officially refers to it by the local Indian name "Denali" (the "High One"). A gold prospector named it in 1896 for then President William McKinley. The U.S. Government compromised in 1980 by calling the National Park "Denali" and the mountain "Mt. McKinley."

The first recorded reference to Denali was in the journal of British explorer 'George' Vancouver. In 1910 the Sourdough Expedition climbed the lower north peak of Mt. McKinley, planting a spruce pole on top. The first ascent of the higher south summit was by Stuck, Harper, Karstens & Tatum in 1913. In 1951, Bradford Washburn with seven others pioneered the West Buttress route. In 1954, pilot Don Sheldon flew the first commercial flight from Talkeetna to Kahiltna Glacier. This has become the norm for most McKinley climbers beginning their expeditions. In June 1959, a party of four (Jake Breitenbach, leader; Bill Buckingham, Barry Corbet & Pete Sinclair) make the first ascent of the West Rib.

Although considered a technically easy climb by the most popular routes, an ascent of McKinley is a serious undertaking made difficult by the cold, the weather, and the sheer scale of the massive mountain. Typically, May (early season) is colder but less stormy, and June is warmer with more snowfall, but in a given year anything can happen.

Near the end of May it becomes light nearly 24 hours a day. This allows climbers to climb any time of day or night. This is helpful in that they can climb during the "night" hours when they are low on the mountain when the snow is harder thus making crossing cravasses less dangerous. Higher up on the mountain, they climb during the "day" hours when it is not quite as cold, though it can still be -20 degrees during the day.

"[Denali] remains unique among the mountains of the world. Situated at latitude 63 N, it is the highest point near the Arctic Circle. Piercing the central plain of Alaska, Denali is buffeted by storms from the Gulf of Alaska and from the Bering Sea. In few mountain locales of the world does the weather change so precipitously and dramatically. A balmy day of glacier travel can rapidly deteriorate into a day of survival-snow-cave digging. The intense cold is, of course, another unique feature of Denali, comparable only to the Antarctic ranges. The Himalaya is tropical by comparison. On the South Col of Mount Everest (26,200 feet) in late October, the lowest temperature we recorded in 1981 was 17 degrees below zero. On Denali, this would be a rather warm night at only 14,300 feet in May and June. Temperatures between the high camp and the summit even in the middle of the summer, are routinely 20 to 40 degrees below and even lower at night. This combination of extreme weather and temperature pummels the unprepared.

Denali also renders the climber more hypoxic; the barometric pressure is lower for a given altitude than on mountains closer to the equator. This difference becomes noticeable above 10,000 feet or so, and makes the summit of Denali equivalent to anywhere from 21,000 to 23,000 feet in the Himalaya (Mt. Everest is at latitude 27 N), depending on weather conditions. The barometric pressure is also much lower in the winter than in the summer. Lower barometric pressure means less oxygen in the air; therefore Denali is more of a hypoxic stress and physiological challenge than one might expect for its altitude."

Peter H. Hackett, M.D.
from the preface of "Surviving Denali"
by Jonathan Waterman (2nd Edition)

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