Denali's Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak (22 page)

“It seems you’re still the Colorado Group”
:
Ibid.
,
32.

“We both appreciated the position”
:
Ibid.
,
33.

“C’mon, sun!”
:
Ibid.
,
35.

“I want four days of food”
:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
74.

Wilcox refused
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King,
37.

“Tell you what, Joe”
:
Ibid.,
38.

“I know the rules are conservative”
 . . . “if I have your full support”:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
78.

“
I didn’t have any”
:
Ibid., 79.

“Consequently, the Colorado group’s shovel”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King,
36.

snow saws and steel spades became mandatory equipment
:
Beat Niederer, “Management Evaluation Report of the Accident Investigation on a mountaineering accident involving the Mountain Trip Concession Guide David Staehli and Death of Client,” March 22, 2012.

“I didn’t see us as very separate”
:
Schlichter telephone interview, February 2013.

“We were three guys from Colorado”
:
Author telephone interview with Howard Snyder, October 2012.

“Well, you take twelve people”
:
Schlichter telephone interview, February 2013.

“We had a couple of meetings”
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

“I had the last word”
:
Ibid.

“It’s not like a military organization”
 . . . “the people who are up there”:
Schlichter interview, February 2013.

CHAPTER 5:
From a Crevasse to Brotherhood

hard to spot, even by experienced mountaineers
:
Author interview with Denali climbing guide Blaine Smith, Eagle River, AK, December 2012.

“I have often seen huge chunks”
:
Washburn,
Muldrow Glacier,
19.

“Come back here, Anshel”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King,
39.

Bunny Boot
:
Extreme Cold Vapor Barrier Boots developed at the Navy Clothing and Textile Research Center in Natick, Massachusetts, for use during the Korean War. Nicknamed Bunny Boots, the bulbous white boots retain warmth by sandwiching up to one inch of wool and felt insulation between two layers of rubber. The addition of a valve sometime after the Korean War made them useable at altitude and popular with climbers.

“I wish there was enough light”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King
, 41.

“Our Fearless Leader”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King
, 42.

“The concealing snowfall”
:
Wilcox,
White Winds
, 84.

“became chronic whenever he got within two blocks”
:
Ibid., 85.

“I didn’t mind carrying it”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King
, 52.

Wilcox said Schiff appeared
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

Luchterhand’s camera wasn’t working
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

The group photo
:
Black-and-white print, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection, DENA13611, 1967 Wilcox Expedition, Folder 110.

The advance team of Wilcox, Russell, Snyder
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King
, 192.

lethal tendency to shatter in extreme cold
:
Author interview with Charlie Sassara, president of the American Alpine Club, Anchorage, September 2013.

with a red, braided outer sheath
:
Author telephone interview with Howard Snyder, September 2013.

50-degree-steep stretch of white ice
:
Washburn,
Muldrow Glacier,
26.

“Anshel, there’s a rumor”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King
, 79.

to Wilcox one-on-one
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

“Richie was worthless”
 . . . “He wanted to beat it”:
Cooley telephone interview, May 2013.

“In my mind [Walt] was the most mature”
:
Author telephone interview with Paul Schlichter, March 2013.

meals averaged 4,505 calories per day
:
Expedition newsletter M8, March 7, 1967, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection, DENA13611, Folder 108.

“witty humorist, tactful conciliator”
:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
93.

“
wanted to be viewed as independent”
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

Calls of “Muthah”
:
Ibid.

“As the trip progressed”:
Wilcox to Hoeman, October 25, 1967.

“John gave it all he had”
:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
208.

CHAPTER 6:
A Run for It

Obvious symptoms of acute mountain sickness
:
Copy of Joe Wilcox’s journal, Grace and John Vincent Hoeman papers, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska–Anchorage.

and swollen hands and feet
:
Jonathan Waterman,
Surviving Denali
(Golden, CO: The AAC Press, Second edition, revised 1991), 26.

dramatic brain swelling
:
Author e-mail interview with Dr. Peter Hackett, September 2013.

exhaustion, drowsiness, and weakness
:
Ibid.

five days to top Karstens Ridge:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King
, 85.

causing noticeable weight loss
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

exhibited extreme exhaustion
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King,
84.

before the symptoms become life threatening
:
Waterman,
Surviving Denali,
25.

“The next two days will be perfect”
:
Wilcox,
White Winds
, 114.

“My feeling is that we should make a run for it”
:
Ibid.,
115.

“a bit apprehensive”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King,
94.

two shovel scoops minus their handles
:
Snyder telephone interview, September 2013.

Blazo fuel, and the five-watt CB radio
:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
116.

“There are a number of treacherous crevasses”
:
Washburn,
Muldrow Glacier
.

“The men in the tent”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the Mountain King,
94.

“At 8:00
A
.
M
.”:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
116.

“I think I’ve still got my 111B”
:
Author interview with Frank Nosek, Anchorage, April 2013.

“but by the time he got there the wall was gone”
:
Snyder,
The Hall of the
Mountain King,
95.

“There’s one thing that didn’t burn”
:
Ibid.

“God dammit, slow down!”
:
Wilcox,
White Winds,
119.

“Seeking shelter here”
:
Ibid.

in order to digest rich foods
:
Klaas Westerterp, “Energy and Water Balance at High Altitude,”
News Physiology Sciences
15 (June 2001): 134–37.

“I’m afraid we don’t have any new weather” . . . “Well, it was snowing”:
Cassette tapes of radio transmissions from the collection of Michael Sfraga, PhD, transcribed by author.

“It was primitive then”
:
Author interview with Ted Fathauer, Fairbanks, AK, October 2012.

“They could look at the mountain”
:
Nosek interview, April 2013.

CHAPTER 7:
Four Months Before and 15,000 Feet Below

Neither Johnston nor Davidson can recall
:
Author telephone interview with Dave Johnston, October 2013.

notified the Alaska Rescue Group
(ARG):
The Alaska Rescue Group was formed in the wake of the 1960 Day Bading rescue by a group of mountain climbers, skiers, riverboat enthusiasts, and skin divers. An offshoot of the Mountaineering Club of Alaska, the ARG was
based in Anchorage. Now called the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, the volunteer rescue organization continues to provide rescue support for the Alaska State Troopers.

“Nothing moved”
:
Author telephone interview with Gary Hansen, November 2012.

“He had a great guilt”
:
Author interview with Robert Sheldon, Talkeetna, AK, December 2013.

“Yeah, I was hucklebuck’n”
:
Art Davidson,
Minus 148 Degrees: The First Winter Ascent of Mt. McKinley
(Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1999), 215.

“His parting comment was”
:
Hansen telephone interview, November 2012.

spotted three men descending near 18,000 feet
:
“Decisions Effecting the Conduct of Search and Rescue Activity on Mount McKinley Rescue, 5–9 March 1967,” ARG project no. 6703, Alaska Mountain Rescue Group files.

before heading back to report their position
:
Davidson,
Minus 148,
198.

the Mountaineering Club of Alaska
:
The Alaska Rescue Group was part of the Mountaineering Club of Alaska. All ARG members also were members of the MCA, although not all members of the MCA were part of the ARG. Babcock telephone, interview, April 2013.

“That one set us back on our heels”
:
Nosek interview, April 2013.

“The club had fairly high requirements”
:
Wayne Merry, interview by National Park Service historian Frank Norris, May 7, 2007.

“When it came to the summertime”
:
Nosek interview, April 2013.

“We thought that for the Wilcox party”:
Ibid.

“where the climbers ascended one-hundred-foot ice walls”
:
Mountaineering Club of Alaska letter to NPS seeking permission to climb Mount McKinley, Alaska Mountain Rescue Group archives.

“Each member of the group”
:
Ibid.

they went out without their sleeping bags
:
Ibid.

“You have to practice”
 . . . “Our first seven days”:
Babcock telephone interview, March 2013.

Don Haglund and Barney Seiler were spooked
:
Ibid.

“Don moody and fearful”
 . . . “Barney took off”:
Bill Babcock’s original journal kept during the 1967 MCA expedition, Bill Babcock Collection.

He told me he was in poor physical condition
 . . . “I didn’t pay much attention to it”:
Author interview with Don Haglund, Anchorage, August 2012.

“The map and book”
:
Babcock journal.

“Everything was soaked”:
Author interview with Gayle Nienhueser, Anchorage, August 2012.

“Hot weather made relays”
 . . . “Mistake to leave big shovel”:
Babcock journal.

“It was Gayle and Leo” . . . “Don and Barney just came to me”:
Author telephone interview with William
Babcock, March 2013.

“several pair of broke”
:
Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection, DENA13611, 1967 Wilcox Expedition, Folder 113. Synopsis of climb signed by Bill Babcock.

leaving the food and fuel behind was foolish
:
Babcock journal.

“I think the smartest thing”
:
Babcock interview, March 2013.

CHAPTER 8:
Howling

“Here we are, Jerry Lewis”
 . . . “Well, they knew”:
Snyder telephone interview, October 2012.

“I thought it strange”
:
Wilcox interview, March 2012.

“I think that was where Joe”
:
Schlichter telephone interview, February 2013.

“In Joe’s defense”:
Snyder telephone interview, October 2012.