Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount Mckinley Free

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Sixteen people have summited Denali in winter. Six deaths have resulted from these attempts. Climbers: Alaskans Art Davidson, Dave Johnston and Ray Genet became the first to set foot on McKinley's summit in winter as defined from winter Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley to spring equinox. One climber on their international eight-man team lost his life in a crevasse fall. The three summitteers were given up for dead when they tucked themselves for six days into a snowcave about the size of a three-man coffin. All three suffered extensive frostbite. Davidson's account, ''Minus Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley, '' is a mountaineering classic. Climbers: Mike Young and Roger Mear reached the summit while their partner, author Jonathan Waterman, crawled to within a few hundred feet of the top in the first winter ascent of the long and difficult Cassin Ridge. Climbers: Charles Sassara, 26, and Robert Frank, 38, were the only ones on a four-man Anchorage team to reach the summit. Frank fell to his death on the descent. None of the party had ever climbed McKinley before. Among Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley memories almost 15 years later: ''What's special about the winter is the sky — you get the stars. They rotate around the summit the whole time, '' Sassara said. Climbers: Naomi Uemura, an experienced adventurer and Japanese national hero, reached the top on his 43rd birthday, the first to solo Denali in winter. His diet consisted of raw caribou and seal fat. Although he died on the way down — likely slipping off the West Buttress ridge between 17, and 16, feet — Denali National Park's mountaineering rangers credit him with an ascent. His body remains somewhere on the mountain. Climbers: Vern Tejas, 35, of Anchorage, a veteran McKinley guide, topped out after a month of being alone on the peak. He returned safely to a hero's welcome and exuberant celebrations in Anchorage -- and credit for making the first successful solo ascent. Climbers: Austrians Helmut Steinmassl, 29; Helmut Mittermayr, 20, and Laserer Walder, 27, were one of two teams climbing the peak simultaneously and the only one to succeed. Days after they Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley, three Japanese climbers got nabbed by a storm at 18,foot Denali Pass and were blown off the pass to their deaths. Their bodies, ''flash-frozen, '' according to a Denali ranger, were recovered months later. Climbers: Dave Staeheli, 33, of Anchorage was, like Tejas, a professional mountain guide. As a series of violent storms blew over Denali, Staeheli hunkered low and waited. He made the top and returned. Climbers: Russians Artur Testov, 32, and Vladimir Ananich, 40, become the first to stand on the top of McKinley in ''the dead of winter. They are also the first to videotape a winter ascent of Denali. A first try at a mid-winter climb in by Testov and another man failed around 12, feet. Climber: Masatoshi Kuriaki, the self-dubbed "Japanese Caribou," became the first man from his country to make a solo summit in the winter — and return safely. InKuriaki became the first person to make a solo summit of 17,foot Mount Foraker in the winter. Subscribe Customer Service. All content. Alaska News Earthquake. Alaska Life We Alaskans. Alaska Marijuana News. Arts and Entertainment Books. Opinions Editorials. Politics The Trail. Sports High School Sports. Special Sections Back to school. Visual Stories Videos. Events Best of Alaska. Alaska Visitors Guide. Contests Breast Cancer Awareness Trivia. ADN Store. Marketplace Classifieds. Contact Us. Sponsored Content Advertorial. Alaska News. Alaska Life. Arts and Entertainment. Special Sections. Visual Stories. Sponsored Content. Share on Facebook. Share on Twitter. Share via Email. Share on Tumblr. Share on Reddit. Share on LinkedIn. Share on Google Plus. Print article. Date on Summit: Feb. Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hrs, 7mins. Date on Summit: March 7, Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hrs, 52 mins. Date on Summit: March 11, Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 11 hrs, 18 mins. Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 8 hrs, 24 mins. Date on Summit: March 7, Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 9 hrs, 16 mins. Date on Summit: Jan. Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 5 hrs, 41 mins. Amount of sunlight in the Denali region: 10 hours, 58 minutes. Minus Degrees by Art Davidson

North American terrestrial ceiling, taken June 4th around 4pm afer 12 days on the mountain. Foraker and Kahiltna Dome as a storm approaches. Pain, I came to feel, might well prove to be the sole proof of the persistence of consciousness within the flesh, the sole physical expression of consciousness. As my body acquired Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley, and in turn strength, there was gradually born within me the tendency towards positive acceptance of pain, and Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley interest in physical suffering deepened. I was forced to admit that on this, my first trip to Denali, I too had grossly underestimated the mountain. On a good day, you can revel in a three- mile drop to the tundra below—a greater drop than most Himalayan giants. Or Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley can look east and see Mount Sanford, more Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley miles away. Or you can meet legendary international mountaineers stumbling down after having suffered up high. I asked one of the doctors, Howard Donner, why they volunteered to spend their summers toiling in such a godforsaken place. The scale of these Alaskan peaks offer a plethora of photo- opportunities for depicting the insignificance of man against the grandeur of nature. Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley skin knew only above zero degree temps. How would my body react at over 20, feet in the arctic cold? As low as 10,ft I can easily get AMS-like symptoms. Denali could be 21 days. So yes, Denali would be different. A hot shower and a Chipotle burrito would no longer be days away. I was going to be climbing in storms. I was going to cook messy meals with messy pans and fickle white gas stoves. I was going to be pulling heavy sleds in addition to carrying a big backpack across heavily crevassed, icy terrain. I was going to have to deal with 5 other people. For up to three weeks. In tight quarters. I backed off a Mt. Still, I was really excited to test myself. Mark and I cackle as Scott lambastes a slightly overweight mountaineer starting up the West Buttress. I even took a weeklong ice climbing class five years ago—immediately after climbing Rainier for my first time—to set the West Rib stage. If I could survive the West Buttress, then I could take on more technically challenging routes—at altitude—in these harsher environments. Also I was generously invited by a friend and his buddies to do the West Buttress route, not the West Rib. Sometimes you just have to take the opportunities that present themselves. Getting on the Disappointment Cleaver at around 11,ft is a great example: One wrong step can kill you. This is especially true if someone had tied your bootlaces together at the Ingraham Flats camp as a prank. Jon Krakauer attempted it unsuccessfully in The West Buttress of McKinley, it is often said, has all the technical challenges of a long walk in the snow. From 16, feet to 17, feet, for instance, the route follows the crest of a Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley ridge that presents a two-thousand-foot drop on one side and a three-thousand-foot drop on the other. Furthermore, even the flattest, most benign-looking terrain can be riddled Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley hidden crevasses, many of which are big enough to swallow a Greyhound bus, no problem. Plenty challenging for the likes of me, it transpired. I was continually miserable, and frequently on the brink of disaster. My tent was starting to shred even in the relative calm at 14, The unceasing cold caused my lips and fingers to crack and bleed; my feet were always numb. At night, even wearing every article of clothing I had, it was impossible to stave off violent shivering attacks. Condensed breath would build up an inch of frost on the inside of my tent, creating an ongoing indoor blizzard as the gossamer nylon walls rattled in the wind. Anything not stowed inside my sleeping bag-camera, sunscreen, water bottles, stove-would freeze into a useless, brittle brick. My stove did in fact self-destruct from the cold early in the trip; had a kind soul named Brian Sullivan not taken pity on me and lent me his spare, I would-as Dick Danger so eloquently put it-have been in deep shit. Lionel Terray—for example—died guiding a 5. Mugs Stumps—Alaskan climbing legend—died falling into a crevasse on lower angle terrain. This is after he climbed some of the harder routes in the Alaska Range. The combined effect of cold, wind, and altitude may well present one of the most hostile climates on Earth. That sounds intimidating, and it should. While waiting at the 14,ft camp I asked the rangers about the weather at 17,ft. They said with mph winds your fortified ice walls can topple easily. Your tent can start to shred. I imagined them crawling on their belly in a raging blizzard to retrieve a snow saw, blown out of their hands from a 70mph gust. When the weather finally calmed, we met a Lithuanian party member coming down. Within 30 hours, more than 5 feet of snow fell at the 7,foot base camp; winds of miles per hour hit the 14,foot camp. Quite a few Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley have asked me how Denali and Everest compare and they are quite extraordinarily different. Everest for the most part is far more comfortable, especially from the Nepal side. At hints of bad weather, we can escape down to base camp and drink our hot lemon teas and sit in comfy chairs. Denali in a shorter period, has a much higher work load. View of the 14,ft camp dots in the center frame from around 17,ft. Foraker is straight ahead. Everest, by comparison, rises a mere 12, feet from the plains at its base. Walking along the lower mile long Kahiltna Glacier and seeing Hunter 14,ftForaker 17,ftCrosson 12,ftand of course Denali 20,ft rise from thousands of feet into the clouds was eye opening for me. High on the West Buttress—which is reached over a week after starting out—you can see just how tiny the 14,ft camp looks, dwarfed by all of the massive features of rock and ice. Looking out at the vast landscape, I suddenly felt like nothing in this world: A small year-old spec contemplating millions of years of large-scale geological transformations. A humbling sight. An icy ridge on Foraker. The intense cold is, of course, another unique feature of Denali, comparable only to the Antarctic ranges. The Himalaya is tropical by comparison. On the South Col of Mount Everest 26, feet in late October, the lowest temperature we recorded in was 17 degrees below zero. On Denali, this would be a rather warm night at only 14, feet in May and June. Temperatures between the high camp and the summit even in the middle of the summer are routinely 20 to 40 degrees below and even lower at night. This combination of extreme weather and temperature pummels the unprepared. Hackett, M. Dave measured temps as cold as degrees Fahrenheit. Park Rangers warned us that they see a lot of frostbite for summit attempt with wind speeds even above 20 mph. Any exposed skin can freeze almost instantly, and frostbite can permanently damage tissue. I met a climber at the ft camp who explained that we were lucky this year, temps-wise. Summer temps had come early in Last year his degree sleeping bag caused him to shiver in early May at only ft! Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley stay warm on the upper mountain he had to put on every single piece of clothing he carried, inside his sleeping bag. The feeling of never being able to get warm must be one of the most miserable feelings humans can experience, at least before hypothermia arrives and warms you into death. This climber was trying the West Rib this year with a friend who had never been to Denali. They were about to make their way up the Valley of Death, and avalanche and crevasse-prone fork of the Kahiltna which leads to the base of the Rib. He must have felt spoiled this year not having to shiver so much, so early. For a moment I experienced a keen awareness that up here the cold, surrounding us like a living thing, was waiting patiently for a chance to slip into our bodies. There were nights—especially at the 14,ft camp—that were extremely cold even without wind. Everything uncovered in our tent would become enveloped in frost. But the wind really made you truly cold. Whenever its icy trajectory intersected with exposed noses or cheeks it felt was like someone was slapping you—hard—in the face, while hissing loudly directly in your ear before, during, and after. I resented it. I just wanted it to stop, and I felt like each gust that knocked me off balance was a personal assault from Mother Nature. These thoughts reminded me of how egocentric we humans can be. Art Davidson:. Silently cursing it became a pastime. I tried to think of all the words that described its evil nature— fiendish, wicked, malicious. I called it a vampire sucking the life out of us. It was simply a chunk of sky moving about. It was a weather pattern, one pressure area moving into another. Still, it was more satisfyingsomehow more comforting, to personify the wind, make it something I could hate or respect, something I could shout at. Minus Degrees, Anniversary Edition: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley — Books

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Minus Degrees by Art Davidson. Minus Degrees by Art Davidson. Ineight men attempted North America's highest summit: Mount McKinley now known as Denali had been climbed before but never in winter. Plagued by doubts and cold, group tension and a crevasse tragedy, the expedition tackled McKinley in minimal hours of daylight and fierce storms. They were trapped at three different camps above 14, feet during a six-day blizzard Ineight men attempted North America's highest summit: Mount McKinley now known Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley Denali had been climbed before but never in winter. They were trapped at three different camps above 14, feet during a six-day blizzard and faced the ultimate low temperature of F. Davidson retells the team's fears and frictions and ultimate triumph with an honesty that has made this gripping survival story a mountaineering classic for over 40 years. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published December 1st by Mountaineers Books first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions 8. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Minus Degreesplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Minus Degrees. May 02, chucklesthescot rated it liked it Shelves: non-fictionadventure. This book is about the deadly attempt to do the first winter ascent of Denali in and the life and death struggle which came as a deadly storm hit the mountain and trapped the men at different places across the mountain. The story is mainly told by expedition photographer Art, who is brutally honest about every aspect of the climb, and also from diary extracts written by other climbers in the group. Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley starts Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley a couple of near misses when members of the team failed to adhere to accepted This book is about the deadly attempt to do the first winter ascent of Denali in and the life and death struggle which came as a deadly storm hit the mountain and trapped the men at different places across the mountain. It starts with a couple of near misses when members of the team failed to adhere to accepted safety in an area known for hidden crevasses. The lack of attention to these details was always going to lead to a disaster and so it unfolded. The details about the crevasse falls were fascinating and it shows how dangerous Denali actually is even before you hit bad weather around the peak. After a bad accident the team have to look at their own ambitions and decide whether or not to continue with the climb. The next part of the book has all the niggles and bickering that you would expect on this kind of climb, and I enjoyed reading about it. I did find all of the men to be good and normal guys who make mistakes, but don't disguise any of it for the book, which I appreciated. As the climb gets tougher, the weather starts moving in and traps them on the mountain. One group are in the area of the summit when they become trapped away from any of their camps with limited supplies and no chance of rescue. Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley the lower camps, their Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley wait anxiously for news or the chance of a rescue attempt. It is a book full of tension as we see through the diary entries what the men were thinking and feeling. I don't want to give anything away but I found it to be an excellent book for anyone interested in mountain expeditions in harsh winter climates. An excellent read. Jun 17, Ashley rated it it was Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley. I am not a climber, nor a mountaineer, and I have absolutely no desire to take up either sport, yet I couldn't put this book down. Art Davidson does a phenomenal job of taking a reader to Denali in the middle of the winter while a group of young climbers attempt to summit. I thought Art did a fantastic job of bringing the reader to the mountain and giving us a glimpse into what it means to find yourself trapped 17, ft high, with no means of rescue. You can't help but fall in love with these y I am not a climber, nor a mountaineer, and I have absolutely no desire to take up either sport, yet I couldn't put this book down. You can't help but fall in love with these young climbers and although you know at least Art will make it out alive I mean, he lived to write the book, right? I still felt myself holding my breath as I read. How would they get off the mountain? When will they find food? Will they all make it? This book is clearly an amazing read for climbers and mountaineers, but it's also a fascinating read for anyone who enjoys adventure, drama, the outdoors, or anyone who wonders what it's like to be the sort of person Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley puts everything aside to stand on the top of a tall mountain. Great read. A riveting mountaineering epic that doubles as one of the most incredible survival stories of all times, Minus has remained a classic since its original publication, so the only question I have is: how come I didn't read this earlier? As a climber, I am familiar with the challenges when we set our sights on various summits, but even fifty years later the proposition of taking on Denali, one of the coldest mountains on the planet, in winter remains close to the realm of lunacy. The fact that A riveting mountaineering epic that doubles as one of the most incredible survival stories of all times, Minus has remained a classic since its original publication, so the only question I have is: how come I didn't read this earlier? The fact that Davidson's expedition managed to get three people to the top, and survived conditions thought to be impossible for the human body, is a testament to their perseverance and determination. Of course, it is understood that the climb was a success because the weather held out for the most part, however the desperate struggle in the ice cave at Denali Pass, as well as the tragedy, mistakes and disagreements lower on the mountain all combine to create one of the most memorable stories in the history of adventure seeking. The reason why Minus continues to enthrall generations of readers, the majority of whom are not climbers, is because of its deeply human element. In the land of bare rock, cold snow and ferocious wind, the only way to survive is to be honest with yourself and your teammates. This is what Davidson succeeded in capturing when he wrote the book, and it is why we keep returning to it. The story only makes sense when we can relate to those who happened to be there - from their character flaws to their fears, desires or sacrifices, all emotions are laid raw for Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley to take in, then ponder on the resiliency of the human spirit. The writing is so compelling that the book is hard to put down; remember to breathe. May 22, Ben rated it liked it. Good, but only average for the genre. The climbers themselves seem a bit lukewarm about the whole thing—not surprising given the grim difficulties and disasters they face. They reach the summit in the dark, where they can't see anything except detritus from other climbers. What's the point? I look down at my speedometer and it says miles per hour. Yowza, I had to fly just to keep even with that ol' wind! Jan 05, lynn rated it really liked it. Tales of extreme adventure never lose their appeal for me! I am especially drawn to stories of epic mountain ascents under Minus 148 Degrees: First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley conditions, possibly because they are often steeped in descriptions of how each of the excursion team's personalities act, think, and react to each other and the situations in which they find themselves. McKinley in Alaska. As often is the case when climbing over glaciers, ice and snow to altitudes most of us wo Tales of extreme adventure never lose their appeal for me! As often is the case when climbing over glaciers, ice and snow to altitudes most of us would not even think of escaping to, this team encounters every dilemma possible, from hidden crevasses, icy, steep grades, deep snow, boulder fields and most of all extreme low temperatures, at one point a wind chill of degrees! One team member narrates the story while inserting excerpts from the journals of several of his team mates to give a better idea of the "whole picture". This edition was a re-release twenty years later, which also affords a glimpse into what affect this one adventure had on their outlook on life as they continued on. A fascinating read! May 02, Aaron added it. This is such a raw account that it will stay with you. Almost every decision is rife with ambivalence or conflict. The value of any of the suffering is left undetermined. The enterprise the first winter ascent to the ceiling of North America and the candid retelling are animated with the same spirit — a primordial desire to do or say something that will outlast you. This was a riveting account of the winter ascent of Denali, and especially enjoyable after having just visited, albeit on a warm sunny day from the park road. The author deserves credit for the unvarnished truth of the expedition. Aug 08, Linda rated it it was amazing. Terrific read! Mar 02, John rated it it was amazing.