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Charles S. Houston and his father, Oscar, became interested in Mt. Foraker in 1932 and by the winter of 1933 began planning for the 1934 ascent. That year on June 17th in Montreal, Charles and Oscar Houston met with the other team members: Dr. T. Graham Brown, Charles Storey, and Chychele Waterston. They met with Carl Anderson on July 3rd in what was then known as McKinley Park (now known as Denali National Park & Preserve). Anderson had awaited them with horses and supplies at Copper Mountain (now Mt. Eielson). By July 7th they had established a camp on the Foraker River at the base of the mountain, although they had yet to see the mountain itself. Camp I was established about a mile up the glacier from basecamp and after exploring for a potential route, they had established Camp III on the 21st at 5,800 ft., fifteen miles beyond Camp I. This they called "Tranquility" due to its peacefulness and comfort. By the 30th they had established Camp V at 9800 ft. where Oscar Houston, Carl Anderson, and Charles Storey returned to Camp IV and proceeded to descend to the Tranquility camp. Camp VII was established at approximately 13,800 feet on the 4th of August. On the morning of the 6th and with a very late start, they started out for the plateau. Upon reaching the plateau, they had to guess as to which was the true summit, the north or the south peak. They decided on the north and at 1:00 pm reached the summit ridge, approximately 2,500 feet below the north summit. As they approached skyline, the slope decreased and the winds increased, they joined arms and walked together onto the summit. From Charles Houston's summit account in the 1935 American Alpine Journal, he writes: "The actual top was very vague, a flattish hump of these queer frost feathers, but T. B. G. found a little peak onto which we set our feet together. I felt curiously unsteady, drunk almost, but not with exultation. It was rather a feeling of finality, conclusiveness, but not of victory. * * * It was fearfully cold and windy-- the little thermometer read minus four, and it was nearly five o'clock in the afternoon. The view was disappointing because of the slight haze that hung over everything. McKinley was incredibly big and again had the color of old silk. The south face was enormous, but I was more interested in a great ridge that ran down to the east ending in a peak that seem to be Hunter. This was a superb ridge of good rock and snow and should bear investigation. To our side of it was the head of the Tokichitna (I assume) glacier which is the most enormous thing I have ever seen. It twisted on and on into obscurity, and all about it was a tangled mass of peaks. The whole area south and east of Foraker and McKinley is a wilderness of snow and ice and rock, and I've never seen a more inhospitable land. there is obviously much more snow than on the north side of the range because even the smaller peaks are eternally white, and most of the glaciers seem to be covered deep with snow but very much crevassed. It looks an impossible country to explore, or at least a difficult and dangerous one. -- Excerpt from my diary." On August 10th, the three again proceeded to the plateau where they then continued on to reach the south summit. The stood upon the south peak as the sun was setting giving them quite a view. They made it back to high camp by 11:00pm and by the 16th, they had reached Tranquility Camp and basecamp by the 21st. Charles Houston would go on to Nanda Devi and K2 and also make significant achievements in medicine as well. Jonathan Waterman writes in his book, High Alaska, "Comparing thirty years of significant expeditions, Houston said that Mount Everest was the most exotic, Nanda Devi the most beautiful, K2 the most challenging, and Mount Foraker the coldest."
FOREFRONT in this book,
because forefront in -- Hudson Stuck,
The Ascent of Denali ©Copyright
2001 Phil Lee. All Rights Reserved.
Updated October 18, 2005
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Sultana
(Mt. Foraker)