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Denali's Howl

the Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak
Sep 22, 2014cliffstory rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I remember reading about this in the newspaper in 1967. Then, a few months ago, I encountered a book called "Forever on the Mountain" by James Tabor. That's a good book but it's clear that Tabor has an axe to grind (or several of them), and he's looking to lay blame for the deaths of the climbers somewhere. One of his targets is the National Park Service, and this book, written by the son of the park director, is something of a corrective to Tabor's. It's possible to say that they should have done this, or shouldn't have done that, but there was really only one decision that mattered: five of the climbers went down from Camp VII (17,900 feet altitude) to Camp VI (15,000) while seven remained and six of those tried for the summit. Even that choice to stay would not have mattered had the peak not been hit by a storm with very high winds that lasted a week. That storm killed the seven; the five had a hard time but survived. The Park Service could not have launched a rescue at altitudes above 18,000 during a storm. Tabor is much better writer than Hall but Hall is more tied into reality.