 |
|
America's tallest mountain Denali, also known as Mt. McKinley, is unsurpassed in challenge or scenic beauty. At 20,320 feet, it rises out of a sea of glaciers and other peaks that compose the Alaska Range. From our start at base camp, we climb 13,000 vertical feet to the summit — the greatest elevation gain of any mountain in the world. Located 150 miles north of the port city of Anchorage, Denali is the largest massif in Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve.
It is often said that the greatest challenge of Denali is not the climbing, but the weather. While most of the world's highest mountains are near the equator, Denali is closer to the North Pole. Denali is located in the middle of the southern Alaskan mainland, 200 miles south of the Artic Circle at 63° North Latitude. This is 35° further north than Everest; this is the same latitude as northern Hudson Bay and central Scandinavia.
Denali's northern location results in a climate around its summit that presents one of the most severe year-round averages of any spot on earth. The weather on Denali, fickle and un-predictable, will dictate our every move. It will force us to be flexible, patient, and sometimes spontaneous. It is the one thing we cannot change, only accommodate.