Denali, the High One, and the First Ascent
Near Talkeetna, Alaska
Look north on a clear day and you may see it, a wall of white far bigger than anything around it. This is Denali, the highest mountain in North America. Its summit stands about twenty thousand three hundred ten feet above sea level, though a nineteen fifty two survey once measured it ten feet higher before modern instruments trimmed the figure.
The name Denali comes from the Athabascan languages and means the high one, or the tall one. In nineteen seventeen the federal government made Mount McKinley its official name, honoring a president who never set foot in Alaska, and the naming has flipped back and forth ever since. Most Alaskans simply say Denali.
The first people to reach the summit did so on June seventh, nineteen thirteen. The party was led by Hudson Stuck, an Episcopal missionary, alongside the seasoned outdoorsman Harry Karstens. But the very first human to actually stand on top was Walter Harper, a young man of Koyukon Athabascan and Irish descent.
It was fitting that a Native Alaskan led the way up the mountain his ancestors had named. Sadly, Harper and his new wife drowned five years later when their ship struck a reef. Talkeetna's mountaineering ranger station now carries his name.
