n the highest
point in North America 104

The saying of the Te Deum 106

Beginning the descent of the ridge; looking down 4,000
feet upon the Muldrow Glacier 122

Johnny Fred, who kept the base camp and fed the dogs
and would not touch the sugar 128

"Muk," the author's pet malamute 136

Approaching the range 164

Map showing route of the Stuck-Karstens expedition
to the summit of Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley) _End of volume_

THE ASCENT OF DENALI

CHAPTER I

PREPARATION AND APPROACH

The enterprise which this volume describes was a cherished purpose
through a number of years. In the exercise of his duties as Archdeacon
of the Yukon, the author has travelled throughout the interior of
Alaska, both winter and summer, almost continuously since 1904. Again
and again, now from one distant elevation and now from another, the
splendid vision of the greatest mountain in North America has spread
before his eyes, and left him each time with a keener longing to enter
its mysterious fastnesses and scale its lofty peaks. Seven years ago,
writing in _The Spirit of Missions_ of a view of the mountain from the
Pedro Dome, in the neighborhood of Fairbanks, he said: "I would rather
climb that mountain than discover the richest gold-mine in Alaska."
Indeed, when first he went to Alaska it was part of the attraction which
the country held for him that it contained an unclimbed mountain of the
first class.

Scawfell and Skiddaw and Helvellyn had given him his first boyish
interest in climbing; the Colorado and Canadian Rockies had claimed one
holiday after another of maturer years, but the summit of Rainier had
been the greatest height he had ever reached. When he went to Alaska he
carried with him all the hypsometrical instruments that were used in the
ascent as well as his personal climbing equipment. There was no definite
likelihood that the opportunity would come to him of attempting the
ascent, but he wished to be prepared with instruments of adequate scale
in case the opportunity should come; and Hicks, of London, made them
nine years ago.

[Illustration: The author and Mr. H. P. Karstens.]

[Sidenote: Members of the Party]

Long ago, also, he had picked out Mr. Harry P. Karst