Denali Has Killed Over 100 Climbers - Some Of Them Are Still Up There

Sanne Aweiti

Sanne Aweiti

2 views

On a clear winter day I can stand in my own yard up the Chena and see it, 150 miles to the south, and I have never once looked at it easy. Denali has killed more than 100 people since 1932, and it is holding some of them yet.

I was born in Fairbanks, and I have wintered in this Interior most of my life. This is the honest answer to what actually kills people on that mountain, from a man who grew up in the sight of it.

In this one you will hear the 6 ways it takes people, ranked the way they really happen. The crevasse that swallowed the first 2 men up there in 1932. The wind that comes off the Gulf faster than any forecast can run. The long fall on the ice coming down off the high pass. The storm of July 1967 that took 7 of 12 young men in a few days. The thin air past 20,310 feet that kills a man's judgment before it kills the rest of him. And the climber who walked in alone in 1981 and was never seen again. Then the turn, the ones the mountain has kept and never given back. The 1910 sourdoughs and their spruce pole. What climbers swear they hear at the high camp. And the oldest name for the mountain, Deenaalee, told the way the Koyukon tell it.

Some of it I can walk you through plain as day. Some of it nobody can. You can weigh it for yourself.

If you want to hear what this country teaches the ones who winter in it, hit subscribe, and I will keep the stove going for you.

Chapters:
0:00 The Mountain From Town
1:00 The Ice That Opens
2:28 The Wind
3:28 The Long Fall
4:54 The Storm That Stayed
6:12 The Thin Air
7:10 The Ones It Keeps
8:24 Left On The Mountain
9:21 The Sourdoughs' Pole
10:15 What Climbers Hear
11:15 The High One
13:10 Come Humble

Keep your fire going, and let somebody know where you went. Clyde

#Denali #Alaska #MountDenali #DenaliDeaths #Mountaineering #WilcoxExpedition #AlaskaInterior