Denali 1967: The Worst Climbing Disaster in North American History (Part 1)
About this episode
The episode discusses the 1967 Denali climbing disaster involving twelve climbers and the challenges they faced.
In the summer of 1967, twelve men set out to climb Denali - then officially Mount McKinley - the highest mountain in North America. Nine of them had been recruited by a 24-year-old graduate student named Joe Wilcox, and most had never met before they arrived in Alaska. The other three were a Colorado team who had lost their fourth man in a car accident weeks earlier, and who were forced to merge with Wilcox's group days before the climb because park rules required a minimum of four. Twelve strangers, one leader, and a mountain that none of them had any real experience of. Denali in 1967 was a different proposition to Denali today. There was no rescue service. Weather forecasts came from a radio DJ reading out the temperature in Anchorage. Radios were so poor that a message from the mountain had to be relayed through Fairbanks and back again. From base to summit it is a bigger climb than Everest, and its position close to the Arctic means the death zone starts lower down. On 15 July, four men reached the summit in near-perfect weather. Three days later, the remaining seven made their own attempt - and radioed from the top as the cloud closed in around them. It was the last anyone…
People in this episode
Host: Hugh
Guest: Andy Hall
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Denali, Alaska, Mount McKinley
More episodes of The Art of Adventure
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- Scott vs. Amundsen: Triumph and Tragedy (Part 2)
- Scott vs. Amundsen: The Race to The South Pole Begins (Part 1)
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