Mount
McKinley is the highest peak in North America with a summit elevation of 20,237
feet above sea level perhaps the single most inspiring mountain in the world
all higher peaks are in the greater Himalaya or in the Andes, part of giant
mountain ranges. In 1897 the Mountain was officially named Mount McKinley,
after the popular United States president William McKinley. It is a massive
snowy mass, flanked by five giant glaciers and myriad icefalls.
It dominates
the horizon from as far south as Cook Inlet, 200 miles away, and as far north
as Fairbanks, 150 miles away. Its steep unbroken south slope rises 17,000 feet
in twelve miles. Five main ridges extend from the summit, and several spurs and
buttresses extend from these. The mountain is progressively more known by its
native name, “Denali”, which means The Great One in the Athabaskan language.
Denali is also the name preferred by the mountaineering community. Denali is not a particularly difficult climb
technically, but the weather is more severe here than anywhere else in the
world and countless lives has been lost attempting the ascent.
The number
of attempts on the summit has increased dramatically in the recent years, and a
greater percentage of these are ending in failure. This is really a heart of Alaska,
and famous as “coldest” mountain in the world and as beautiful as it is
dangerous. This is where Mrs Fahrenheit and Mr Celsius meet secretly at night:
-40 degrees. In any given climbing
season, more than 1000 mountaineers attempt its summit. It's an astonishing
geological feature which seems to have limitless faces as the variations in
light render its views exceptional on a daily basis. Although ascent of Mount
McKinley is considered a serious undertaking made difficult by the cold, the
weather, and the sheer scale of the massive mountain.
The climbing
season starts from mid-April until mid-July, since before then it is too cold,
and after that too stormy and the snow too mushy and unstable from too much
sun. First ascent of the main summit of Mount McKinley came on June 7, 1913 by
a party led by Hudson Stuck. The first man to reach the summit was Walter
Harper, an Alaska Native. Harry Karstens and Robert Tatum also made the summit.
They ascended the Muldrow Glacier route pioneered by the earlier expeditions,
which is still a popular route today.
Some of
major facts of Mount McKinley are as below.
Elevation
(feet): 20,320
Elevation
(meters): 6,194
Continent: North America
Country: United States
Range/Region: Alaska Range
State: Alaska
Latitude: 63.0694
Longitude: -151.004
Difficulty: Major Mountain Expedition
Best months
for climbing: Apr, May, Jun
Year first
climbed: 1913
First
successful climber(s): Hudson
Stuck, Harry Karstens, W. Harper, R. Tatum
Nearest
major airport: Anchorage, Alaska
Convenient
Center: Talkeetna, Alaska
