Chasing Denali: The Sourdoughs, Cheechakos, and Frauds behind the Most Unbelievable Feat in Mountaineering

by JonathanWaterman (Author), Jonathan Waterman (Author)

New
Hardcover
2018
$22.07

The history of mountaineering began on Denali with the legendary story of four gold miners (called Sourdoughs because they carried sourdough starter with them at all times) who claimed to have summited after climbing more than 8,000 feet of steep snow and ice, then back down again-all in a single and incredibly dangerous day in 1910. Lugging a 25-pound, 14-foot flagpole to mark their success, they took on North America's highest peak using sheet metal crampons, coal shovels, hatchets, and alpenstocks to balance their way up the mountain. Was the expedition a success or a hoax? Denali climber Jon Waterman brings this colorful mountaineering mystery to life.

Synopsis

The history of mountaineering began on Denali with the legendary story of four gold miners (called Sourdoughs because they carried sourdough starter with them at all times) who claimed to have summited after climbing more than 8,000 feet of steep snow and ice, then back down again-all in a single and incredibly dangerous day in 1910. Lugging a 25-pound, 14-foot flagpole to mark their success, they took on North America's highest peak using sheet metal crampons, coal shovels, hatchets, and alpenstocks to balance their way up the mountain. Was the expedition a success or a hoax? Denali climber Jon Waterman brings this colorful mountaineering mystery to life.

$22.07

Quantity

11 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 184
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Published: 01 Nov 2018
ISBN 10: 1493035193
ISBN 13: 9781493035199

Media Reviews

Straospherically the finest in the genre. With this book, Waterman has earned a place alongside such great modern American mountain writers as David Roberts and Jon Krakauer. -Greg Child, author of Thin Air A mountaineering classic, not only because it takes as its subject the nation's highest mountain but also because Waterman writes with unusual vision and spirit . . . Striking not a single false note . . . this is a strong, mature work by a gifted writer. --Booklist

Author Bio

Jonathan Waterman is mostly known for his time exploring the North, detailed in seven of his twelve books and in journals such as the Washington Post, The New York Times, Adventure, Hooked On the Outdoors, Outside, Backpacker, Climbing, and Rock and Ice. He is the author of A Most Hostile Mountain, Arctic Crossing, Cloud Dancers, In the Shadow of Denali, Surviving Denali, and Where the Mountains Are Nameless, among others. He lives in Carbondale, Colorado.