First published 2008
In 1967, Joe Wilcox leads a twelve-man climbing expedition up Alaska's Mount McKinley. The twenty-four-year-old guide watches as weather conditions deteriorate into a brutal arctic storm. Seven members of his team become stranded high on the mountain. The storm refuses to break, and rescue becomes impossible. All seven men perish in what becomes the most deadly mountaineering disaster in American climbing history. James M. Tabor reconstructs the expedition through interviews, documents, and investigation. He uncovers disputes about responsibility, accusations between survivors, and attempts to hide crucial facts. The author reveals how finger-pointing and cover-ups followed the tragedy, creating controversies that lasted decades after the climbers died.
Genres: biography, adventure, non-fiction, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Alaska, Mount McKinley
Period: 1967
432 pages · Paperback · W. W. Norton & Company
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence