Play for more than you can afford to lose. Then, you will learn the game.
– Winston Churchill |
| North America’s Highest Peaks |
Photo Gallery |
1. Alaska’s 20,320-foot Denali |
 |
Gerry took this photo in June 1975 en route to Mount Foraker’s
Archangel Ridge
Alaskan ace horse packer Berle Mercer leads Stu Krebs across the Peters River,
while Denali’s 14,000-foot high Wickersham Wall looms above us
Seen here, Denali’s north face, which rises to Denali’s lower, north peak,
is the greatest mountain uplift in North America |
| Denali, or Mt. McKinley as it is sometimes called, is the highest peak in
North America, the United States, Alaska’s Denali Borough and Alaska’s
Denali National Park. Located 135 miles north of Anchorage Alaska at
latitude 63 degrees north, Denali is also the highest peak in the world
north of 60 degrees north latitude. Denali is also higher than any peak
south of 60 degrees south, making Denali Earth’s highest polar peak. |
| I have climbed Denali three times. I did the West Buttress in 1963 at age
19, and made the 34th ascent of the peak. I have an account of
this early climb in my book,
Transcendent Summits.
In 1990, I approached on foot from Wonder Lake and climbed the Muldrow Glacier Route,
thus realizing my long-held dream to climb Denali under my own power from the tundra
and ascend the greatest mountain uplift in North America.
I climbed the West Buttress again in 1991 to complete a great hat trick. |
| – Gerry Roach |
