Free Denali's Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak by Andy Hall

schedule. To reach the top, each man would climb the mountain multiple times, moving supplies higher and caching them before returning for more, methodically ascending with enough food and gear to support the team as it moved higher and higher.
    The rain threw a pall over any excitement of finally being on the mountain and climbing. Clothes and sleeping bags became waterlogged, tent floors pooled with water, and when the sun made its brief appearances the men hustled to spread out their wet things, only to rush them back under cover when the rain returned. Walt Taylor, frustrated at the wetness, turned his face to the clouds and rain and called out, “C’mon, sun! Show us you haven’t forgotten your chillun!” He also suggested they all walk around naked to show their faith in the Sun God. No one took him up on the proposition.
    Jerry Clark led the foray up the glacier on June 24 with Luchterhand, Russell, and Walt Taylor on the rope team. While the others continued to move supplies from the horse cache to Camp I at the top of McGonagall Pass, the advance team checked their harnesses, clipped in to the rope at 50-foot intervals, and set out behind Clark, who led the way over the uneven terrain on skis. They established Camp II close to the base of the Lower Icefall at 6,500 feet.
    The Lower Icefall was the first of several they would encounter on the route to Denali’s summit. An icefall is the glacial equivalent of a waterfall. Like the water flowing over a cliff, a glacier moving over a steep or narrow part of its bed becomes broken and chaotic. Glacial ice is somewhat plastic and flexible, but where it bends sharply, its surface shatters and cracks, forming crevasses that vary widely in width and depth, some a few feet deep, others plunging all the way to bedrock. Intersecting crevasses form ice columns called seracs. Where the glacial bed flattens or widens out, the crevasses close and the surface of the glacier becomes smooth again. They would encounter six perilously crevassed icefalls on their route, three on the Muldrow Glacier and three on the Harper Glacier.
    Jerry Clark and Mark McLaughlin had brought skis as well as plastic Snowtreads and snowshoes and were using the skis for glacier travel. This did not sit well with John Russell, who let it be known to whomever would listen that he thought skis were unsafe for mountaineering. Already he was gaining a reputation as the one who picked battles, and though he tried to keep calm, another appeared to be brewing just below the surface.
    It didn’t stay there long. On Sunday, June 25, only a couple of days after the conflict among Snyder, Schlichter, and Steve Taylor, Russell lost his cool. Clark, McLaughlin, Russell, and Janes were roped together, ferrying loads of gear from Camp I to Camp II. Russell and Janes walked while the other two skied. The slope on that part of the glacier was slight, but one of the skiers—probably McLaughlin since Clark was leading—lost control and nearly pulled Russell and his overloaded pack to the slushy ground. The men exchanged words and Russell stewed in his juices all the way back. Upon reaching the McGonagall Pass camp, John Russell stormed up to Wilcox, face red with anger and said, “I want four days of food, a tube tent, and a stove. I’m leaving the expedition.”
    Wilcox listened and then convinced Russell to stay, promising to gather the team in the morning to work through the conflict.
    The sun popped out briefly on June 26, quickly followed by sleet and then snow. Under the pall of wet snow, all twelve expedition members huddled under shared ponchos and rain gear. Wilcox began with an attempt at fostering teamwork but Russell quickly jumped in, complaining that skis were unsafe. McLaughlin and Clark had asked to form a rope team of two for trips down the glacier to take advantage of the speed of their skis.Wilcox refused, saying downhill skiing was forbidden. The skiers countered that the thousand-foot elevation