From Woody's Couch

This blog post is part of the Frozen Friday Series, an A-Z journey of the Polar Archives.  Each week, we will feature some aspect of the history of polar exploration with a blog post written by our student authors

Mount Denali, located in central Alaska, is the highest mountain in North America. First sighted in 1794,
the mountain is in such a remote area that it would not appear on any maps of the area until 1830, and it would not be summited until 1913.

In 1897, gold prospector William Dickey called it Mount McKinley after Ohioan William McKinley, who had just been named the Republican presidential candidate. This officially became the name after McKinley was assassinated a few years later. The mountain was officially called McKinley until 2015, when President Barrack Obama officially returned the mountain to its Athabascan name, Denali, which means “the great one.”

The mountain has two distinct peaks: a shorter northern peak which reaches 19,470 feet and a southern peak which tops out at 20,320 feet. At such a height, Mt. Denali is one of the highest mountains in the world based on the traditional measurement, which is the mountain’s height above sea level. Measured from base to peak, however, and Denali becomes the tallest land-based mountain at eighteen thousand feet—much taller than Mt. Everest’s twelve thousand feet.

Denali’s height and location play a monumental role in the mountain’s weather and shape. Because the Earth’s atmosphere curves around the planet unevenly, Denali nearly reaches the edge of the troposphere and comes very close to the jet stream. Under certain conditions, the jet stream can unleash winds of over one hundred miles per hour at the peaks. These winds can triple in velocity while traveling down the mountain. Anything unfortunate enough to be in the wind’s path—climbers, loose rocks, snow—is stripped off the mountain.

In addition, because the summit is so close to the lower atmosphere, oxygen levels only reach about sixty percent of the oxygen available at sea level. Added to the perpetual snowfall, frequent avalanches, hidden fissures under the ice, endlessly steep terrain, and a reputation for sudden storms, this makes Denali one of the world’s most difficult mountains to climb.

The first attempt to climb the mountain came in 1903. Five men, led by James Wickersham and aided by numerous locals, tried to scale the Northern Peak but had the misfortune to pick the most challenging route. They turned back after eight thousand feet.

Just a few months later, experienced polar explorer Dr. Frederick Cook decided to make his own attempt at the summit. Cook believed that his knowledge of polar regions—which are remarkably similar to the conditions on the mountain—would give him an edge. This first attempt failed, however, due to Cook’s poorly chosen route, bad planning and an amateur crew. Cook and his party did manage to circumnavigate the mountain, which was a major accomplishment, and would not be repeated for fifty years.

Cook opted to try again three years later. This attempt did not fare much better than his 1903 expedition. Cook had extensive trouble ferrying his men and horses across the streams, passes and swamps of the lower mountain. Realizing in late July that further climbing would be futile, Cook instead prepared for a scheduled big game hunt with a sponsor. When this sponsor did not appear as planned, Cook took the opportunity to return with two men to further explore the mountain. That September, Cook returned claiming to have reached the summit and return in mere twelve days (eight to ascend and four to return). It would not be long before Cook’s claim was contested by those who had attempted to climb the mountain themselves, including members of Cook’s own expeditions.  Yet, at the time, there was no hard evidence to prove otherwise.  Cook returned to the continental U.S. a hero, and quickly turned his attention to the North Pole.  On July 7, 1907, he and a wealthy benefactor set off for Greenland, and a subsequent attempt to reach the North Pole.  Cook would not return to civilization until 1909 – and thus, he was unavailable to answer any questions or respond to any scrutiny about his Mt. McKinley claim.

Meanwhile, doubters tried to repeat Dr. Cook’s route to prove that he had not summited McKinley as he had claimed.  It wasn’t until June 7, 1913, that Walter Harper, Harry Karstens, Hudson Stuck and Robert Tatum achieved the summit.

 

To learn more about this amazing and beautiful place, visit the National Park Service’s website here.

And to learn more about Dr. Cook and his role in the history of Mt. McKinley, visit our online exhibit about Dr. Cook here.

Finally, for a book that lays out the controversy, including photographic evidence, we recommend The Dishonorable Dr. Cook, by Bradford Washburn.

Written by  Autumn Snellgrove and edited by John Hooton.