Customer Reviews

Surviving Denali: A Study of Accidents on Mount McKinley 1903-1990

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This well written and researched book by Jonathan Waterman tells an interesting and pretty harrowing experiences of things that can go wrong when you climb a mountain. In this case, that mountain is Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America and a popular climbing peak due to its accessibility. The author takes these "statistics" of injuries, accidents and deaths into a learning experience for the readers of his book. These "statistics" often results from accidents, carelessness, medical edemas, unprepareness, lack of skills and bad luck that can happened to anyone at anytime on Mount McKinley. But the author make it clear that if all the proper precautions, preparation and training were engrained, a climber would have most of the favors on his side (her side).

I think this book probably could use an update. The book ends at 1990 which's 14 years ago and many things have changed and more lessons to be learned.

This book basically go over many of the bad things that happened to people on Mount McKinley and why. The author make it clear that this is not a very safe mountain to climb despite of its yearly heavy traffic and high summit success rate. The book should be considered as a mandatory reading material for any first time climber of Mount McKinley. As Otto von Bismarck once said, "Only fools learned from their own mistakes, the smart ones learns from the mistakes of others". I think the author is trying to get that message out.

I have read two of Waterman's books on Denali - In the Shadow of Denali and Surviving Denali - both are excellent sources of information for anyone interested in Denali and mountaineering in general. Surviving Denali is like a 90 year archive of incidents on the mountain much like the Alpine Clubs yearly accident report. Who can not benefit from following a detailed description of each of the events and causes in an effort to make your own passage more informed and safer? It is the responsibility of all who extend their travels into remote or less safe environments to so armed with as complete a set of tools in their arsenal as reasonable so as to make their round trip possible and avoid putting others on the mountain and rescue personal at risk. Surviving Denali is an excellent way to learn from the past.

It is easy read, schematic and really gives you an insight on what can happen up there, on your way to the summit. The wind may be fierce, the route difficult. Embarking on a climb with no or little experience, trying to summit with little or no food or water, putting others lifes at risk is just a few of many interesting and suprising episodes you are being told.

The book has a diversity of different accidents that has occured on the mountain from mountain sicknes, falling and sliding several 100 feet, being blown away while still in the tent. What really got to me was the way some asian teams treated their fellow climbers that, because of sickness/injury, could not performe as well as the others. I hope I never have to rely on their help in a needed situation far up in the mountain.

Reading the book made me even more humble toward the mountain that I am eventually going to climb, and I really recommend this book to anyone who is interested in climbing. It gives you a good perspective on what might happen out there, and maybe makes you more prepared for it.

I might sound like a freak, but I had trouble putting it down. I'm heading to climb Denali in a month, and this is a great resource of "what not to do" while there. Awesome. If you have any interest in doing this or any of the Seven Summits, please read this first.

Note: the Kindle version has some odd formatting in the chapter headers, but it's easy enough to look past that.

The AAC Guides made this required reading for us before making a summit attempt. When focussing on climbing, what risks others are taking etc. you can become impatient and foolhardy. Others died when we were on the mountain, but luckily we made it safely to the top.