The Sourdough Enigma
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THIS IS THE ONLY discernible photograph from the Sourdough expedition —the climbers had a camera, but no one could reliably operate it. This image, taken at 11,000 feet, is of Charley McGonagall (left) and the portly Thomas Lloyd. They are carrying alpine poles that they had custom made for the climb, using a design from the 1700s. Alfred Brooks and Belmore Browne during previous Denali sorties in summer. The group was two days out when a typical miner brawl sent three of the seven— William Lloyd (no relation to their leader), Robert Horne and Charles Davidson—back THE to Kantishna and Fairbanks (no injuries were reported, although Horne’s knee had been acting up). Still in the team were Tom Lloyd (age 50), Charley McGonagall (40), Billy Taylor (33), and Anderson (42). SOURDOUGH Although shrinking the team allowed the remaining climbers to move faster, losing the talented Davidson (later Surveyor General of Alaska) meant that no one could work the team’s aneroid altimeter and ENIGMA camera. Hereafter the Sourdoughs would bungle most every photograph and take wild guesses about how high they were on the unknown mountain. The remaining four traversed onto the A hundred years ago, three Alaskan pioneers 32-mile-long, sinuous Muldrow Glacier— BY JONATHAN with no climbing experience made one of the originating on the north side of Denali WATERMAN beneath the Harper Glacier Icefall—by a greatest climbs of all time. Or did they? hidden pass discovered by McGonagall. derided less capable outdoorspeople from miles away and within 35 miles of Denali. Anderson reassured the jumpy Lloyd not south of their territory. Although none of Their secret weapon, a rangy fellow miner to worry about the glacier creaking and these aspirant Denali climbers were born named Pete “The Swede” Anderson, had shifting beneath their fur bedding atop in Alaska, their years of suffering in the mushed out a couple of weeks earlier. For quill mattresses. mosquito-hung and frost-shattered wilds— the next week—as the six ferried canvas The four spent much of latter February In 1910, a trio of Alaskan miners unknowingly This is a tale of unassuming pioneers carrying fermented pouches of sourdough tents and caribou-robe sleeping pads to and March bridging open crevasses with introduced the world to alpine-style climbing who, while trying to prove an earlier Denali “starter” around their waists for baking Kantishna—temperatures hit 60 below hauled-in dead trees and shoveling snow on high-altitude mountains. Called the Sour- ascensionist a fraud, raised a new set of enduring bread and donuts—elevated them to the zero. The new arrivals joined “The Swede” over the makeshift bridges. Eventually, doughs, these mountaineering neophytes, or so questions. Years of twists and turns would elite cultural status of “Sourdoughs.” These and drank whiskey, played cards, hunted they would build a continuous trail up the we are told, lugged a 25-pound, 14-foot flagpole follow as the tale of the plucky Sourdoughs outspoken men of the trail had long been and prepared game meat. Then they bided Muldrow Glacier to the real climbing. Since up Denali. In winter. Using sheet-metal cram- alternately gained and lost and gained credence. incensed by the claims of the mendacious their time waiting for—as Alaskans call they had only a half-dozen dogs, they pons, coal shovels and wood-chopping hatchets, In modern times—as every façade and gully of Dr. Frederick Cook. This “Cheechako” it—“the return of daylight.” mostly backpacked monster loads of food the three men took on North America’s highest the mountain has been explored—more specific (meaning someone who lived outside Alas- On February 11, 1910, in lengthening and gear progressively higher from three peak. In lieu of 19th-century alpenstocks, they questions have arisen as to their superhuman ka) had claimed the first ascent of Denali in days, they started their final approach. camps, placed seven miles apart. Choking made six-foot-long, double-picked 18th-century speed on what remains a difficult climb over a 1906 during an improbable six-day, round- Denali, the High One, rose 18,000 feet out on coal-oil fumes in their canvas and wood- alpine poles to help them balance up knife- century later. And while appropriately studying trip dash. Every red-blooded outdoorsman of the tundra in front of them, the greatest poled tents, they switched to cooking with edges or gullies. the feat in the context of its time, we are aided in the north wanted to prove Cook a fraud. base-to-summit relief on earth. firewood on their cast-iron stove. When These Sourdoughs, likely the earliest by modern technology that may finally shed Several weeks later, at 1 p.m. on December Trail conditions were ideal: 30 below zero they ran low on wood and food, they walked sponsored alpinists in North America, had new light on the veracity of their ascent. 22, 1909, six avenging Sourdoughs mounted temperatures had frozen their McKinley dozens of miles back out to the forest for an astonishing touch for fund-raising. Their up, in a winter solstice departure offering River crossing solid. The Sourdoughs more fuel and bridge material, while shoot- leader, Tom Lloyd, talked three supporters into them a scant three hours and 57 minutes of were attempting the peak in winter in the ing more caribou and moose, or catching donating $1,500 (worth $36,000 in 2017). In the “CHEECHAKO” daylight. Cheered on by a crowd, they rode belief that extreme cold would allow them more fish for the dogs. town of Fairbanks, where these itinerant miners In early December 1909, the Sourdoughs were out of town on sleds driven by three horses, to avoid the melting crevasse bridges and The prospectors may have lacked organized their expedition, bets for and against mostly driven by angry talk at the Washington two dog teams and a mule, bound for their avalanches that had stymied the Cheechako climbing experience, but as McGonagall them summiting ran from two cents to $5,000. Saloon in Fairbanks. As proud northerners, they ALASKA LIBRARY, STATE P277-004-089, WICKERSHAM HISTORIC STATE SITE PHOTO COLLECTION mining claims and cabins in Kantishna, 175 “dandies” Dr. Cook (despite his claim), later told an interviewer, Norman Bright, 46 | ASCENT 2017 ASCENT 2017 | 47 DENALI NORTH FLAG SUMMIT PLANTED (19,470 FEET) 18,500 FEET DENALI THE SOURDOUGHS Thomas Lloyd, expedition leader, is seated. He claimed to have PASS summited the North Peak (19,470 feet) and that the team had climbed to both of Denali’s SOUTH summits, including the taller South Peak (20,310 feet). His assertions would cast doubt SUMMIT (20,310 FEET) on whether any of the Sourdoughs reached either summit. Left to right, standing, are: Charley McGonagall, Pete “The Swede” Anderson and Billy Taylor. McGonagall himself said that he had reached the top of the North Peak, but later said he stopped at about 18,500 SOURDOUGH feet, where the three allegedly planted a spruce flagpole. Anderson and Taylor may have COULOIR reached the North Peak summit. HARPER GLACIER LAST CAMP MULDROW (11,000 FEET) During the last week of March teenager after the death of his parents GLACIER 1910, they chopped and shoveled to seek his fortunes in the Klondike. As KARSTEN’S RIDGE a continuous 3,500-foot-high, Lloyd’s wisely chosen mining-business 1.5-mile-long staircase up the partner, Taylor backpacked 150-pound unclimbed crux buttress (later loads up hills where other miners carried named Karstens Ridge) of one-third the weight. today’s Muldrow Glacier Route. In the Lloyd interview, later sold by the On April 1, they left at first light News-Miner editor to the The New York from their 11,000-foot camp— Times, Lloyd referred to their mining which they believed to be at employee Anderson as “a world’s wonder” least 15,000 feet high—below who could’ve climbed a mountain twice as the ridge. They carried sacks of high as Denali. “He is a tower of strength,” THE SOURDOUGHS’ ROUTE. According to their account, leaving camp at 11,000 feet on the glacier at first light on April 3, 1910, McGonagall, Taylor and donuts and thermos flasks filled Lloyd said. “His endurance seems limitless.” Anderson climbed 8,400 vertical feet through unknown terrain. Unroped, unsupported, they broke trail, dragging and shouldering a 14-foot flagpole. At 18,500 feet they paused to erect the pole and a flag, with McGonagall later admitting to stopping there. Many tales and reports of the climb have the Sourdoughs with hot chocolate. The donuts, Taylor, who unlike Lloyd eschewed over- planting the flag on the summit, but the climbers saw no need to drag the encumbrance any further than the couloir’s final rock outcrops. From there, with according to McGonagall, were a statement, concurred about Anderson. McGonagall staying behind to rest, Taylor and Anderson pressed on, reaching the 19,470-foot North Peak summit. The three then descended to camp in a round- perfect winter trail food because “Hell of a good fellow on the trail,” Taylor trip time of just 18 hours. The speed is impressive even by today’s standards. Consider that in 1978 the highly experienced mountaineers Galen Rowell and Ned they were “hardened” by their time sourdough kept them fluffy, and they didn’t said to Bright in their interview years after Gillette climbed from 10,000 feet on the well-traveled West Buttress to the South Summit, a gain of over 10,000 feet, and back in 24 hours. And their speed climb traveling through the remote North with freeze in subzero cold like teeth-breaking the climb.