The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-11-26
MOUNTAIN
CLIMBER
The Great Exploit of DR..
Cook Now Visiting
Honolulu.

DR.. Frederick A. Cook, the famou
Arctic explorer and the first man t
ascend Mt. Mckinley, washington,
now in Honolulu. His climbing feat
| which occurred in September last, ha
been heralded all over the country a
something remarkable, the mountain
tie Post-Intelligencer gives the follow
ing story of the ascent:
Ly3 lg back in an easy chair, with thu
bronze of the Arctic storms still on hi!
cheek, DR.. Cook told the tale 1t in
cludes the swimming OF Arctic river:
when the shivering men pushed and
struggled with great cakes of ice that
they might gain the land again; it in
cludes the story of lonely vigils night
/ after night sitting on step cut out OF
the eternal ice, too small in which tc
erect tent. too small to even lie down
Perched on this, the intrepid explorer
shivered through more than one night
when a false step, even a five minute
doze and the loosening of the grip OF
the benumbed fingers would have
meant a death horrible to contemplate.
For in some cases there were granite
cliffs as sheer as a bottomless well,
which stretched three miles up into the
/ sky. And il was when the explorer
and his assistant had circled around
the mountain and hand circumvented
these cliffs that the heart-breaking, al
most impossible work began.
Yes said DR.. Cook, in answer to
questions, his hazel eyes rather twink
ling at the impetuous eagerness Of the
newspaper men by whom he was sur
rounded, there We're four attempts
in all on the mountain. My attention
was directed to Mt. Mckinley through
an article 1 read in the New York Sun
from the pen of Cyrus c. Adams. This
was in 1902, and 1 soon reached the
determination to try and ascend this
mountain, declared to be inaccessible,
in the interests of science. AS you
know, we made two attempts in 1903
and two attempts this year. It GER
tainly did not look to US this time that
we would succeed till quite late in the
season, but finally we negotiated a path
around the enormous cliffs and began
the real ascent to the peak. With me
assembled Mr.. Barrill, chief packer to
the expedition, resident of Darby,
Mont. Only two reached the top. the
others waiting in camps below the r.
600 foot line
TWO PEAKS TO MOUNTAIN
DR.. Cook said there were two peaks
to the mountain, with space between
covered with the everlasting snow.
Then, too, several thousand feet up the
hillside there was a mountain, sort
of a mountain on a. mountain, around
which the explorers had TO go. The
only patch led around a sort of cornice
on which the chief and one of his men
had TO spend a night Of horror hang
ing by their ice knives and snow picks.
With axes and knives they dug out
from here flights consisting of thou
sands of steps in the ice that has been
for ages, and then finally
when the slope became a little easier,
and when it was possible to erect a tent
and get out Of the biting cold, the vast
altitude began to trouble the two men. {
Blood burst from the ears, eyes and
nose of DR.. Cook and his companion, F..
and often dizzy and sick, they hung
over the edge with hardly the con- !
sciousness to save themselves. Their |
limbs were heavy, lethargic, the heart /
hammered and throbbed as If it would .
burst, death seemed close beside.
With the generalship that has made /
DR.. Cook the successful explorer he is, /
nothing was left to chance, for provi- +
sion was made for failure as well as
success. Snow huts and tents were left
behind in charge of members of the
party. These We're to be a sort of line
IF communication, along which the ex-
petition, if broken and shattered, could
retreat. Fifty pounds was the load of
Zach member of the party when the
loot of the mountain was reached and
ascent, in which all participated, was
begun. But as the party climbed high
r and higher, and as one by one stayed
behind on the communication line, and
Is the path grew harder and harder.
he amount carried had to be de-
,reased.
STARS AND STRIPES FROM PEAK.
When the top was reached there was
little but the blankets left in the
Jacks. yet, although DR.. Cook does not
ook like q man of sentiment, yet in
LII the desperate struggle he stuck to
he stars and stripes, and On the top
II the mountain for the next explorer
o find, or rest there eternally should
he present feat remain unmolested, re-
,oes a case in which the flag is folded
md on which are inscribed the naHes
4 the members of the expedition.
What was the scene at the top like?
vas a question which DR.. Cook dwelt
!pon- From the great peak almost five
niles above the plain the eye could
raveI a couple of hundred miles in ev-
~ direction Cooks inlet and the
Pacific could be seen and all the dis
ant points were stretched as on a le-
cndary occasion the kingdoms of the
World were once before stretched out
efore watchers on a great height.
here was a mist, a dimness, over the
andscape close to the great peak and