Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-11-04
A SEVERE CLIMB
IS MT NJ KINLEY
HARD WORK EVEN GET TING
TO BASE OF THE NOUN
TAlNs.
THERMOMETER AT SEVENTY BE-
LOW IN WlNTER-SuMMERS
RAINY AND DIsCOURAGING.

in Alaska is based upon four trips
which | have made thither to under
take ascents. This is as much as, or
more than, any one has attempted IN
mountaineering in that country: and
It has made me quite familiar with
most Alpine conditions between the
Wrangel group Of the St. Elias range,
thence misunderstanding Mount Nc
KinIey-to and including the volcanoes
of the Aleutian islands. Yet I must
confess to lacking the technical train
ing with rope and axe necessary for
an Alpine climber, which cannot be
obtained properly outside Of Swltzer-
land.
My trip to Mt. WrangeI, 14,005 feet
high, in 1900, was hardly more than
a reconnaissance; in 1903, with DR..
II. A. Cook Of Brooklyn, we reached a
height on the southwest shoulder OF
Mt. Mckinley Of 10000 feet, as re-
corded by a pocket aneroid, 'uncor-
rectcd," and, as far as / know, uncom-
pensated for that region and thus pro
badly inclined to overstate. In 1906,
climbed with moderate success on
the Aleutian islands, and last year
reached the summit Of Wrangel with
Mr.. w. r. Soule. who for II years has
been a resident Of Copper Centre,
Alaska. Since an active crater makes
the crest of Wrangel, my photographs
of it's interior have been filed as
proof with the United States GeoIog-
VIZ, ic wa q
q first ascent.
These climbs, with Dr. Cooks sec
Und try at Mckinley, the seven at
tempts made upon Mt. st. Elias before
the duke Of the AbruZzi successfully
won it's top, and much brilliant high
mountain work by members Of the
geological survey (WhOm mOdesty has
always kept from ADVERTISEMENT,
make up the sum of all Alpine work
in Alaska undertaken for sport or for
scientific ends.
Accents Unusually Difficult.
To one like myself, who is acquaint-
ed by actual observation only with
the higher Rockies of Canada and
the States, and with portions Of the
Andes the difficulties of climbing in
Alaska appear, on the whole, to be eX-
ceptionalIv severe The sole COndi-
ton in favor of ascents there is that
no peak nearly reaches the height
estimated at 10000 feet-aboye which
human life supposedly cannot be main
tanned under the physical stress OF
scaling But McKinley's 10000 feet,
the 5000 feet of st. Elias, the 1880
feet of Mt Logan and the slightly
lower tops of nearly a dozen more
Alaskan mountains, present other di-
Iemmas, which I do not believe are
exceeded even upon the highest Him
alayas, whose SUBMITS are at present
generally conjectured to be inacces-
sible.
The first of these is plainly the OBJ
stacle of climate; and yet Alaskan
weather conditions at high attitudes
are not as desperate as might be sup
posed in a land so far north. Alaska
is a sub-arctic country, theoretically;
the arctic circle is visible from its
higher peaks; and winter tempera-
lures down to the seventies, Fahren-
heit, in regions adjacent to it's chief
mountains are not uncommon. The
average winter cold is greater in
many sections there than in the eX-
IRENE polar sea, and is surpassed in
the world only by portions of Siberia,
the antarctic continent, and the Green
land ice-cap.
C1imhino in winter NAV not vet
he nationally considered as feasible
:, Alaska. howevar the utter wind
Tassnnes that nsuaIIv ACCOMPANIES low
ternaraturas distant from salt water.
ora tr,o foo+ that NO limit can no mt
~ tbe deoraa of terrestrial cold which
,,,or, snmcian+I,, clothed and nonrfsbed
NAV, hoor wonld not. necessarily nre-
cIrde If Oh residents of Alaska have
often suggested the winter rather than
tne summer Tot e.'lIDI5,., o|i"s ~, ~ ,, 1
SS,-D'e' 80. ,tlo- d,,o - ,,a1+ins
SSilNe VI slloD -S'l.,'' aIoo,,r, an5 ~
80 '',7- It1.. - 500, r,,,o,r,
.0''9. no @0.'0 -
-" .,'S ''''''
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~ ''lg !ol -
tban hara - +I,o aa -, b,,+ ~ 1nn1har
80 a1a,,s,, 5r;-,.I,- 49, :, 49,, -.auo,rs
1,-,s.l 49,, -. --,2-.t15, -. ono
80 - ~, -, ~ 49, 800