Denali's Howl

The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America's Wildest Peak

By: Andy Hall

Narrated by: Jim Manchester

Denali's Howl is the white-knuckle account of one of the most deadly climbing disasters of all time.

In 1967, 12 young men attempted to climb Alaska's Mount McKinley—known to the locals as Denali—one of the most popular and deadly mountaineering destinations in the world. Only five survived.

Journalist Andy Hall, son of the park superintendent at the time, investigates the tragedy. He spent years tracking down survivors, lost documents, and recordings of radio communications. In Denali's Howl, Hall reveals the full story of an expedition facing conditions conclusively established here for the first time: at an elevation of nearly 20,000 feet, these young men endured an "arctic superblizzard", with howling winds of up to 300 miles an hour and wind chill that freezes flesh solid in minutes. All this was without the high-tech gear and equipment climbers use today.

As well as the story of the men caught inside the storm, Denali's Howl is the story of those caught outside it trying to save them—Hall's father among them. The book gives listeners a detailed look at the culture of climbing then and now and raises uncomfortable questions about each player in this tragedy. Was enough done to rescue the climbers, or were their fates sealed when they ascended into the path of this unprecedented storm?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 Andy Hall (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

riveting

intetesting story. I appreciate the author's connection to the story and the research to determine what happened.

amazing story

This book kept me riveted the whole way through. I learned a lot about hiking and climbing and found it very interesting.

Good Book

This was a good listen. Lots of detail and good speed. I recommend it. Download.

Occult subject handled it with grace and compassion

The story of the tragedy of 1967 on Dinali is extremely well written. The author had to deal with multiple characters and, at times, the names were a little confusing but by the end it all came together with the overriding story. The book shares a lesson in the need for leader ship and the psychology of a Group without a strong leader. However,, to critique an expedition years later is not fair and I doubt any leader could’ve handled the group’s survival with a once in a century storm this poor young men encountered. Deals with this tragedy with grace and compassion.

I greatly enjoyed the narration of the book. It is spoken clearly and factually a method that this book with this serious a topic deserves

Choppy, annoying narration

The narration was awful. In too many sections he PAUSED . . . with emphasis on the last word of the PHRASE . . . for every PHRASE . . . over what must have been several PAGES. Sentences within the same paragraph were disjointed from each other because of these pauses, but then the topic/paragraph would completely change without an appropriately longer pause to distinguish this change. This made even the dramatic parts of the story choppy and hard to follow.

I would have preferred to read the print copy.

Narrator

Narrator was actually pretty good, except when he tried to mimic voices from the characters in the story. They all end up sounding like Elmer Fudd or Gomer Pyle.

Spellbinding

This book kept me in its grip from the first chapter until the very last.

good adventure book with some tragedy

great book about quite the adventure. well written, well performed. tragic but that just adds to the intrigue.

Mountain climbing

This is an amazing story of adventure and tragedy, and a most difficult mountain to climb an Alaska. Even with much experience, it causes a large huge challenge when the weather conditions change. And they don’t always change until year on top of the mountain. I love this book, and I am in no way a mountain climber.

A study in human behaviour

If you've never read any other works of the mountain climbing genre, this work would be a good introduction. As with many of the works, much of the story revolves around the personalities and interpersonal relationships within the teams attempting these extreme challenges.

What makes this work interesting is the historical nature of the climb and makes for a good comparison of how far technology has come regarding forecasts, equipment, and communications. Much of what occurred in this story could likely be avoided or mitigated by todays technology.

Technology hasn't, however, changed human behaviour and group dynamics. What is described in this story would apply today from this perspective, and anyone considering an extreme challenge, from long distance ocean passages to mountaineering, would do well to read and study as many of these cases as possible.

I also liked the follow up work concerning the reactions of the relatives of those lost to the mountain. It makes a good reflection point, specifically about how families have a burning desire to blame others for the decisions and bad luck that killed their loved ones. I guess that's how we've ended up with the litigious society we have today.

The narrator did a great job with this story. His cadence and inflection was pleasing and enhanced the work.

Much has been written about Everest, K2, etc. but Denali is often overlooked. This book fills in this void quite nicely and gives the reader a lot to think upon.