The Seventymile Kid: The Lost Legacy of Harry Karstens and the First Ascent of Mount McKinley

Longtime Denali writer and researcher Tom Walker tells the remarkable story of Harry Karstens, the actual, if unheralded, leader of the first successful expedition to climb McKinley in 1913. Karstens, all but forgotten by history, arrived in the Yukon as a young man during the 1897 Gold Rush, gained fame as a dog musher hauling US mail in Alaska, and eventually became the first superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park. Aided by unprecedented access to Karstens's journals, and those of the three other climbers on the expedition, Walker has uncovered new information about the Stuck climb, and reveals the Stuck ‘triumph’ was an expedition marred by significant conflict. Without Karstens's wilderness skills, tenacity, and ingenuity, it is unlikely Stuck would have climbed anywhere near the summit of McKinley. Yet the two men had a falling out shortly after the climb and never spoke again. Walker sets the record straight about the historic first ascent itself and describes other early attempts by Frederick Cook and Judge Wickersham. Archival photographs, including rare and never-before-published images are also featured.