The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-08
COOK GUEST OF EXPLORERS.
TELLS TRAVELLERS HOW HE
CLIMBED MT. M'kINLEY.
Peary Not There, hut Sends q Letter Sug-
costing That Mrs. Hubbard BE Made q
Member DIR. Cook RecOunts the Hard
ships or the Tim Foo "a short.


ships or the Climb-FoOd ran short.
Or. Frederick A. Cook of Brooklyn told
the Explorers Club last night how he
climbed to the top Of Mount Mckinley on
a diet of wood alcohol. He told. too. how
a turn in his luck gave him the chance
of getting to the highest point in North
America after he had given up all hope
of making the summit.
The Explorers Club, which was organized
about a year ago by men who have done
things, rave its first annual dinner last
night in honor of DR.. Cook. He was elected
president of the club yesterday afternoon
in place of Gen. Greedy. The dinner was
held in the Cafe Atelier at 80 West Sixty
seventh street.
Col. David l.. Brainard, first vice-presi-
dent of the Explorers, who was one OF the
six survivors of the Greedy expedition and
was rescued by Admiral Schley in 1884, sat
with Prof. H. c. Parker of Columbia, who
went exploring in Alaska with Cook. Her
bert l.. Bridgeman, secretary Of the Peary
Arctic Club; Anthony Fiala Of the Zlegler
pole hunting outfit; Frank NJ. Chapman,
the bird man of the Museum OF Natural
History; Prof. NJ. H. Saville, the archs-
ologist who has just got back from Ecuador;
c. H.. Townsend, director of the Aquarium.
who has beer deep sea fishing in theS South
Seas; s. p. Werner, who returned not long
ago from an exploring trip in the Congo
country; Albert Operti, the historical
painter and polar explorer, and Henry
Collins Walsh. a pole hunter himself were
some of the men who sat around the long
ables in the Atelier.
Commander Peary wes not able 70 be
present, but the club toasted him and drank
TO his good fortune anyway. Gen. Greedy,
former president of the E plorers', sent a
letter in which he suggested that Mrs. Nina
b. Hubbard, who made her way through
Labrador after her husband lost his life
there, should be elected an honorary mem
Der of the club. 1t isn't likely that she
will get in, because the club has barred
women out, but President Roosevelt has a
better chance. Anyway, said a member
of the club, he explored the Culebra cut,
and that is something.
DR.. Cook il a small man. a Though rug
gedly built, and he looks more like a student
than a mountain climber. He told his story
slowly and appeared to enjoy the telling OF
il as much as he did getting to the top Of
Mount Mckinley.
we left Seattle on May 10 last, said
the doctor. ~Belllnore Brown, Prof. Parker
Russell W. Porter, Mr.. Miller and several
others. We landed on the Alaskan coast
on May 81 and our i'll luck began from that
moment Ravenous Esquimau dogs at
tackled six of our horses and drove them
away. A few days later six more horses
got caught on a plain of burning Ignite
coal and three of them were burned TO
death. We ascended a system of small
rivers with "A forty foot launch OF only
twenty inches draught and worked our
way with great suffering u within sixty
eight miles of the base Of the mountain.
Sometimes we swan ice cold rivers. Some
times we plunged through deep drifts Of
snow. Sometimes we got caught IN QUICK
sands and struggled out Just barely. lime
and time again we failed on our attack
upon the old mountain. We attacked on
the northeast side.
when we had worked upward through
the foothills 10 a height Of 5000 feet we ran
up against what appeared 10 lie erpen-
dicular cliffs for $1,000 feet, There seemed
TO he no way Of ever finding an opening
We made up our minds practically that
the mountain couldn't Re climbed, so We
spent weeks in exploring a great glacier,
collecting specimens and taking ofserva-
tons. During that exploration came the
first bit Of good luck. We found an old
miners trail, long deserted, that ran for
four miles in the direction we wanted to
20. At the end Of the trail we came upon
a system of caribou trails which took us
twelve miles further.
AT that time we had no idea Of making
the summit and were ready TO give up almost
I any day. We came 10 a cliff about 1000 feet
high and mana ged To find footholds on IL.
By night of the day we started to climb
the cliff we had worked upward half the
distance and had to stick. for the night.
Next morning we were Undecided whether
10 go ahead or turn back, but decided to go
ahead, since we had gained so much.
An the time the seven of us were roped
together. Our supplies were OF the slim
NEST. We had a small store of pemmlcan
dried beef and tallowl, Of small, hard his
cults. tea, sugar and pea soup. We made
two meals a day, morning and evenlnR
To make TEA we he'd 70 dig a little snow
from the floor Of our tent and 1t took TWO
hours to melt the snow and get the water
to a boiling point. The temperature az
: 1000 feet was sixteen degrees below zero
(thp same as at the top of the mountain we
found later and IL seemed as II we would
never he warm again.
ITO make things worse, the cans in which
our wood alcohol, our fuel, were stored
leaked, and our tea and sugar got soaked.
SO we had 70 live partly on wood alcohol
for most of the trip up the mountain. we
were 80 terribly exhausted during the two
or three days before we got 10 the top that
our hearts pumped terribly, and II seemed
"a lTlBnllul eHOIt 10 III OHt INV ~ W"
! other.
A night we made camp wherever pos
Sible, making snow houses and wrapping
ourselves up in our sleeping bags. Some
times at night we had TO kick each other and
pummel ourselves with our fists to get v
a measure of warmth. They were the most
miserable days | ever spent or expect TO
spend. .
1T was 1890 O'Clock on the morning OF
September 10 when We finally gained the
top. We were so worn out, so terribly
! exhausted. dizzy and numb in every faculty
that not a mar Of US could really appreciate
the glorious sight that unrolled before US,
In all we spent Just twenty minutes on the
summit. taking the temperature, getting
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