Customer Reviews

The Hall of the Mountain King: The True Story of a Tragic Climb

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I enjoyed reading this book by Howard Snyder which retells the story of the Wilcox Expedition to climb Mount McKinley during the summer of 1967. The climb was a total disaster as 7 out 12 climbers frozed to death, making it one of the worst climbing incidents in modern American mountaineering history.

The author was one of the five survivors and he retells his side of the story on how this disaster took place and why. In doing so, he appears to put a lot of blame on Joe Wilcox, the expedition leader for making poor decisions that directly and indirectly, led to the death of seven climbers under his leadership. Of course, he also cites the Park Service for forcing him and his two friends joined Wilcox's expedition since the Park Service had a "four man team" rule.

The story Snyder writes proves to be interesting, scary and quite numbing. It also cast Joe Wilcox as the main reason why the climb went bad. I think from Snyder's point of view, Wilcox was the captain of the ship and he's responsible for everything that goes on that ship (aka: expedition).

This proves to be an interesting read but you shouldn't read it without having Joe Wilcox's book, White Winds nearby. White Winds is Wilcox's response to Snyder's book.

I guess I did not see the Anti-Wilcox bias as much as other people. It does show how Wilcox was a little naive on planning the expedition and how Synder disagree with Wilcox on certain principles. I think it show how you want to limit you exposure on the High Mountains, know your equipement and team mates.

I believe that Synder understood Mountainering better than Wilcox and he pointed out how he disagree with Wilcox decisions that would not have matter if the Weather had not turn, but as soon as the weather turn the poorer decisions becomes distatorous. I much prefer this book to White Winds which to mean is more of a Poor Me is being blame for the Weather going bad instead of a proper look of because I made this decision when the weather went bad things got really bad quick.

It is also obvious that the two teams did not function well together in both books and because of this there was unnecessary work being done (one team would do it one way and the other would redo it a different way) and bad communication. This lead to less than optimal placement of camps, lack of good effort to reclimb back to the high camp and low supplies being left in certain areas.

I think the biggest valid complaint about Synder role during the climb can fall into two catorgories. 1: He did not state clearly enough why he would do something different (placement of routes and camps. For example he went to one side of the Avalanche cones because the Avalanches would peter out at the cones so it was safe from Avalanches, not bothering to see while Wilcox did not respect Washburn knowledge due to Washburn complaining about his expedition, and the fact that the camp was more expose to weather in one location versus another.)

All in All a good example why it important to understand fully what you are attempting to do and have a leader that you can trust your life with when attempting these Mountain summits because on these High Mountain Summits you are trusting your life with your leader.

I enjoyed this book greatly since it details America's worst mountain tragedy and is written before the lead climber's rebuttal in White Winds by wilcox

After accepting my order and payment for this book. The order was canceled...with no attempt to fill the order at a later date.