1967 Mount McKinley disaster

The expedition to climb Denali was organized by Joe Wilcox, a 24-year old graduate student at Brigham Young University. To attract climbers to join the expedition, Wilcox mailed out newsletters and advertised a joining fee of $300 to cover food and gear expenses. Wilcox managed to sign on eight men to join his expedition: Jerry Clark (age 31), Steve Taylor (age 22), Dennis Luchterhand (age 24), Mark McLaughlin (age 23), Anshel Schiff (age 30), Hank Janes (age 25), John Russell (age 23), and Walt Taylor (age 24). The expedition's application to climb the mountain was met with skepticism from the National Park Service at Denali National Park and Preserve due to the climbers' inexperience in high altitude. While all members of the team were familiar with basic mountaineering practices, none had ascended a peak higher than , while Denali's summit is at . It was now a 12-member team attempting to climb the mountain. The Park Service approved the expedition's application to climb, with caveats that team members purchase and carry radios with them on the climb, that the experienced climbers of the Colorado group had to stay with the less experienced climbers of Wilcox's group, and that less experienced climbers had to take training courses to prepare for the high elevation and rugged terrain they would be experiencing. ==Events==

The climbers began their ascent of the mountain on June 22. The expedition climbed the mountain from the north via the Karsten's Ridge route across the Muldrow Glacier, a less-expensive route up the mountain but more remote and much less used than the standard West Buttress route. Despite most men in the team suffering from some level of altitude sickness, the climbers made good progress up the mountain and by July 13 had established a camp at . At this point, some reports indicate Park Service Rangers contacted the team to inform them of a large storm developing that was projected to hit the mountain somewhere from July 16 to 17. Regardless of this potential discrepancy, weather was projected to be clear for the next few days and so the expedition continued on. The next day, eight members of the team moved higher up the mountain to establish their final camp at , with the intent of pushing for the summit on the 15th. The start of this climb was delayed when a malfunctioning stove caused one of the expedition's tents to catch fire, but the high camp was established by 7:00 p.m. that evening. Initial estimates placed wind speeds in the range of 100 to 150 mph (160 to 240 km/h). After returning to camp, there was a brief break in the weather, allowing for a view up the mountain. No signs of the missing climbers were visible, prompting an emergency call to the Park Service. Weather conditions deteriorated again that evening, preventing rescue efforts until the storm cleared. The storm continued on the mountain for two more days. During this time, the five men at 15,000 feet came into strife themselves. They abandoned one of their tents and all stayed in one three-person tent to keep warm from their body heat. With no room to operate their stove in the cramped space, they were only able to eat foods that did not require cooking. Lewis and Schiff became very weak from the ordeal, while Wilcox and Snyder began suffering numbness in their toes and fingers, but were in relatively better shape. On July 23, weather conditions finally improved, and the five men began descending to a camp at . As they neared the camp, they received assistance and much needed food from climbers representing the Mountaineering Club of Alaska (MCA), who had weathered the storm at the lower elevation. The next day, the members of the MCA split up, with one member climbing down with the survivors to ensure they safely returned to base camp, while the remainder began their ascent of the mountain to search for the missing seven still on the high slopes. ==Rescue efforts==

The five survivors of The Wilcox Expedition (Snyder's group, Wilcox and Schiff) reached base camp on July 25. Wilcox then crossed Wonder Lake to reach the Wonder Lake ranger station, which dispatched a helicopter to base camp to rescue the remaining survivors. On July 28, the MCA members searching for the missing seven climbers reached the remnants of the Wilcox Expedition's high camp. There they found the remains of one of the climbers clutching a tent pole, having likely frozen to death in this position. The body had already started decomposing, as an exposed hand had appeared to have thawed and refrozen several times over the preceding days. This body was assumed to be that of Steve Taylor, who had remained at camp during the other climbers' ascent. However, with the poor condition of the remains, a positive identification was not made, and this assumption remains only speculation. Howard Snyder later theorized this body may have been that of John Russell, and that Taylor had died attempting to descend to 15,000 feet, as evidenced by Taylor's ice axe and sleeping bag being found near the Harper Icefall that lies between the two camps. The next day, the search party ascended farther up the mountain and found the remains of two more climbers at the base of Archdeacon's Tower. The bodies had not decomposed and were found sitting upright in a position that appeared to be bracing themselves against the wind. With the bodies badly frozen, these remains were also never identified. In a later interview about the incident, Paul Schlichter speculated that the two bodies found here were those of Dennis Luchterhand and Walt Taylor, who were the most fit of the group that perished. None of the other four remains were ever located. The three bodies found on the mountain were left behind, as no high-elevation recovery equipment existed at the time of the disaster. In 1968, a humanitarian expedition climbed the mountain to find and bury all seven bodies. By this point, the remains found by the MCA members the previous year had disappeared and none of the seven climbers' remains were ever recovered. ==Aftermath==

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Bradford Washburn, one of the most well-known American mountaineering experts of the time, called the accident "U.S. mountaineering's worst disaster" and the result of both the awful weather conditions and poor tactical decisions by the climbers. Joe Wilcox came under heavy criticism as the leader of the expedition. Claims that he lacked effectiveness as a leader combined with his inexperience in high altitude settings led to him receiving much of the blame for the deaths that occurred. In 2012, Jeffery Babcock, one of the members of the MCA group that searched for the missing climbers, published Should I Not Return: The Most Controversial Tragedy in the History of North American Mountaineering!, detailing his group's expedition and his perspective on the disaster. In 2014, Andy Hall, the son of the park superintendent at the time of the accident, published his book ''Denali's Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak,'' which includes interviews with both Wilcox and Snyder about the events. == See also ==