3° 



The National Geographic Magazine 



PLAN FOR CLIMBING MT McKINLEY* 



By Alfred H. Brooks and D. L. Reaburn 



Of the U. S. Geological Survey 



DURING the past summer the 

 writers were engaged in a re- 

 connaissance survey inAl ask af 

 which extended from the Pacific coast 

 through the Alaskan Range and along 

 its western base to Yukon waters. The 

 route of travel lay close to the foot of 

 Mt McKinley, and though it was no 

 part of the plan to ascend the mountain, 

 for which there was neither time nor 

 facilities, time was taken to climb its 

 slopes to snow line, and the members of 

 the party were undoubtedly the first 

 white men to approach the summit. 



The Alaskan Range is a rugged 

 mountain mass which extends to the 

 northeast from the vicinity of Lake 

 Clark, and sweeping around the great 

 Sushitna Basin forms the watershed be- 

 tween Cook Inlet on the southeast and 

 the Kuskokwim and Tanana waters on 

 the northwest. On the east and'south 

 it rises by a series of foothills from the 

 Sushitna River lowland and on the west 

 it falls off abruptly to a gravel-floored 

 plateau, which slopes gradually toward 

 Kuskokwim waters. The southern end 

 ot the range has not been explored, but 

 the peaks probably have attitudes of 

 from 7,000 to 9,000 feet, while to the 

 northward the relief increases very 

 much and the range culminates in Mt 

 McKinley, over J 20,000 feet in height, 

 and Mt Foraker, fourteen miles to the 

 southwest, about 17,000 feet. To the 



northeast the range includes a number 

 of peaks which are from 10,000 to 14,000 

 feet high, Mt Hayes, b'ing between the 

 headwaters of the Cantwell and Delta 

 rivers, being the highest. The crest 

 line of the range lies near its western 

 margin. 



In 1898 Eldridge and Muldrow§ sur- 

 veyed the Sushitna River, while Men- 

 denhall traversed the eastern end of the 

 range; Spurr and Post crossed the 

 southern end, and Peters and Brooks 

 explored the region to the north along 

 the Tanana River. In the following 

 year, Lieut. Josephs. Herron, U.S. A.,|| 

 made an exploration in the southern 

 part of the Alaskan Range and also of 

 a part of the Kuskokwim basin. These 

 investigations, together with the ex- 

 plorations carried out by the writers, 

 have outlined this great mountain mass, 

 which, as has been shown, contains sev- 

 eral of the highest peaks on the conti- 

 nent. The results of these surveys have 

 given not onl} r geographic data, but also 

 thrown much light on the conditions of 

 travel, distribution of timber, and on 

 the climate of this province. The time, 

 therefore, seems now ripe to plan an 

 ascension of Mt McKinley. 



Mt McKinley (latitude 63° 04', lon- 

 gitude 151 °, see map) lies in about 

 the center of the range, measured in a 

 northeast-southwest direction, and its 

 summit is only about ten miles distant 



* Published by permission of the Director of the United States Geological Survey. 



t A report embodying the results of this expedition is now in preparation. 



jThe final adjustment of surve3's have not yet been made, so that the exact altitudes can 

 not now be given. 



§ For reports on these expeditions see Vol. VII, Twentieth Annual Report, U. S. Geol. Survey. 



|| " Explorations in Alaska in 1899." War Dept., Adjutant-General's Office, No. XXXI, 

 March, 1901. 



