Denali's Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak

In 1967, twelve young men attempted to climb Alaska’s Mount McKinley - known to the locals as Denali - one of the most popular and deadly mountaineering destinations in the world. Only five survived. Hall, son of the park superintendent at the time, investigates the tragedy. He spent years tracking down survivors, lost documents, and recordings of radio communications. He reveals the full story of an expedition facing conditions conclusively established here for the first time: At an elevation of nearly 20,000 feet, these young men endured an “arctic super blizzard,” with howling winds of up to 300 miles an hour and wind chill that freezes flesh solid in minutes. All this without the high-tech gear and equipment climbers use today. This is also the story of those caught outside the storm - Hall’s father among them. The book gives readers a detailed look at the culture of climbing then and now and raises uncomfortable questions about each player in this tragedy. Was enough done to rescue the climbers, or were their fates sealed when they ascended into the path of this unprecedented storm? This is an important addition to the other literature of this expedition written by Howard Snyder, Joe Wilcox, James Tabor, and Jeffrey Babcock. This is the fifth, of five, books to cover the Wilcox-Snyder story.