Bill Sherwonit - To the Top of Denali: Climbing Adventures on North Americas Highest Peak

Praise for To the Top of Denali:

To the Top of Denali is a fascinating account of historic, tragic, and contemporary climbs on the mountain.

Juneau Empire

Sherwonit has produced Denali in a Nutshell.... The author has [created] an incredibly accurate portrait of the mountain and the climbers.... To the Top of Denali is fat with information... and some seldom seen photos.... So read this book before you go. Better yet, take it with you (or it will take you) to the top of Denali, where youll salute Bill Sherwonit for the world that opens up at your feet.

Jonathan Waterman

Here in one book are the great moments of mountaineering on Denali.... [It] offers insight and tales of great adventure for both advanced climbers and all the armchair explorers who wonder why people climb mountains.

Excerpt from the Foreword by Art Davidson

Bill Sherwonit tells the story of McKinley through the high and cold experience of those who were there. These tales will keep you up long evenings and perhaps make you shiver in your warm living room. They are as timeless as the mountain itself.... I havent read anything about McKinley that tells the history of the mountain so easily and naturally.

Galen Rowell

Sherwonit describes some of the best-known personalities and eccentrics associated with the mountainBradford Washburn, Ray Genet, John Waterman, Vern Tejas, and Naomi Uemura, a Japanese climber who disappeared in 1984 after becoming the first person to climb McKinley alone during the winter.... You dont need to be a climber to appreciate the stories.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Books like [To the Top of Denali] should be assigned reading for anybody contemplating the climb.

Bradford Washburn

A CLIMBER ASCENDS MOUNT MCKINLEYS CASSIN RIDGE, A STEEP ICE AND ROCK SPINE THATS CONSIDERED ONE OF NORTH AMERICAS GREAT MOUNTAINEERING CHALLENGES.

THIRD EDITION

TO THE TOP OF

DENALI

CLIMBING ADVENTURES ON
NORTH AMERICAS HIGHEST PEAK

BILL SHERWONIT

WITH A FOREWORD BY ART DAVIDSON

ALASKA NORTHWEST BOOKS

Text 1990, 2000, 2012 by Bill Sherwonit

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of Alaska Northwest Books.

Third edition 2012

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Sherwonit, Bill, 1950

To the top of Denali : climbing adventures on North Americas

highest peak/Bill Sherwonit; with a foreword by Art Davidson. 3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-88240-894-1 (pbk.)

1. MountaineeringAlaska--McKinley, MountHistory. 2. McKinley,

Mount (Alaska)Description and travel. I. Title.

GV199.42.A42M3256 2012

796.522097983dc23

2012034427

Book design and maps by Cameron Mason

Cover design by Elizabeth Watson

Cover photos: Front coverMount McKinley, photo by Fred Hirschmann. Back coverAuthor Bill Sherwonit explores Anchorages backyard wilderness, Chugach State Park, in 2011 with his beloved hiking companion, Coya. Photo by Tom Englehart.

With the permission of the Anchorage Times, nine articles by the author are reprinted here, whole or in part: McKinley Rangers Fight Battle with Trash on Mountain (May 19, 1985); Mountain Doctors Set Up Shop on McKinley (March 29, 1987); Writer Begins His Assault on Denali (May 30, 1987); Climbing McKinley, three-part series (July 19 and 26 and August 2, 1987); Following in Uemuras Footsteps (April 10, 1988); Anguished Tejas Couldnt Have Known Climbers Trouble (May 29, 1988); Determination to Succeed Killed Climber (May 29, 1988); McKinley Mountaineering, 1988 (January 22, 1989); and McKinley Masterpiece (March 19, 1989). The Deadliest Season: 1992 first appeared in the Anchorage Daily News (July 12, 1992), in slightly different form.

Alaska Northwest Books

An imprint of Graphic Arts Books

P.O. Box 56118

Portland, OR 97238-6118

(503) 254-5591

www.graphicartsbooks.com

For Helene and Mom,

and in memory of Dad

DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE
(SEE INSET FOR LOCATION IN ALASKA)

CONTENTS

__________

FOREWORD

__________

Like other mountaineers, I am often asked, Why do you climb?

The question is posed as if going out into the mountains is one of the most bizarre and inexplicable things men or women might do.

I think there are mountains in all of our lives. Whether we climb the earths highest peaks, hike in gentle hills, or explore the metaphorical ranges of the psyche, most of us are drawn by the archetypal power, beauty, and exquisite wildness of mountains. In the mountains of the world, we can venture into wilderness, connect with nature, seek ultimate challenges, or simply have a good time with friends in the outdoors.

Of the earths wild places, Denali, towering over all the glaciers and high ridges of the Alaska Range, is one of the wildest and most intriguing. In my five expeditions to Denali, once making the first winter ascent, I have found myself drawn into its tremendous presence. It is not only the highest peak in North America, but it is one of the highest mountains in the world, from its base. It spawns more than a dozen glacial rivers. Enormous avalanches rake its exposed slopes. Storm winds reach hurricane forcemore than 150 miles per hour. And the unpredictable weather and ever-changing mountain light envelop Denali in a mysterious, awesome beauty.

Few of us will ever have the opportunity to climb Denali, but writer Bill Sherwonit can take all of us to the mountains highest reaches. An Alaskan, Sherwonit lives close to the mountains presence. A climber himself, he has scaled Denali. As a writer, Sherwonit transports us not only to the mountain, but into the drama of the great expeditions. In an informative, fast-paced narrative, he brings alive the heroics of the pioneers who tried to make the first ascent and of those who followed, putting up ever more harrowing routes on the mountains steep ridges and walls.

Here in one book are the great moments of mountaineering on Denali. Sherwonit allows us to share the adventures of those who have risked their lives trying to reach its summit. He lets us share the excitement of their success, and unflinchingly lays bare the tragic accidents that have claimed the lives of climbers. It is a pleasure to welcome this book, which offers insight and tales of great adventure for both advanced climbers and all the armchair explorers who wonder why people climb mountains.

ART DAVIDSON

Author of numerous books including Minus 148: The First Winter Ascent of Mt. McKinley, Alakshak: The Great Country, and In the Wake of the Exxon Valdez.

PREFACE

__________

The roots of this book can probably be traced back to high school, when I was captivated by Maurice Herzogs classic, Annapurna. But more directly, the book is tied to a couple of events in my life in 1985.

First, I changed jobs at the Anchorage Times, switching from sportswriter to outdoors writer. Instead of covering athletic events like basketball or baseball, I was reporting on such activities as fishing, hunting, campingand mountain climbing. Though not a mountaineer, Id always loved the mountains and been intrigued by the people who climb them. Now, suddenly, it was my job to write about climbing activities in our countrys Last Frontier. In a way, it was a dream come true.