Title/Author:
“Denali's Howl: The
Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak" by Andy Hall
Tags:
Mountaineering, death
Publish date:
March 12, 2014
Length:
368 pages
Rating: to
4 of 5 stars (very
good)
Review:
The Wilcox Expedition
on Denali (then called Mount McKinley) in 1967 was the deadliest in the recorded
history of the mountain in which seven climbers died mainly due to frostbite
and hypothermia. The story of this expedition which had many problems is told
in this book by Andy Hall.
Hall grew interested in this particular climb when his father, who was a Mount McKinley National Park employee, was taking calls about a rescue mission for climbers on the mountain. The rescue, along with so many other aspects of this expedition, was fraught with problems. Some of the problems were because of human error, some were due to nature.
The climb was known as the Wilcox expedition because the leader was Joe Wilcox,
a 24 year old climber who had little experience in climbing, let along leading
a team on a mountain as large as Denali. It should be noted that several
members of the party did manage to reach the peak of Denali. However, from the
beginning, the men on the expedition were having trouble with getting along as
a team, splitting into various factions.
Wilcox was not the only inexperienced climber – aside from a few members
from Colorado, not many had extensive experience. Hall does a good job of describing this
problem and the tension the men were experiencing.
There were also communication problems as the two-way radios were not effective, especially when calling for help when the weather turned. And speaking of the weather, it was considered especially difficult as many factors (wind, temperatures, snow, etc) combined to make it one of the most extreme storms the mountain had. This input from Hall's connections to the peak's weather experts are crucial to understanding this aspect.
The book is balanced in its approach to not only describing the tragedy, which
reads as good drama, but also in its assessment of what went wrong on the
expedition. Because so many factors played a role in this, Hall presents them
all along with opinions from the experts he interviewed and that makes for a
complete picture. The reader will be
left to decide what he or she believes will be the true reasons for the loss of
lives. This is a good book for readers
who enjoy reading about mountaineering expeditions.
E-book (Kindle)
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