White winds

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular account of human loss
Review: I read this book prior to a summit attempt of Denali. It put into perspective of the task that I was about to face. I approached the climb with more respect for mother nature than I ever had prior. Although I never reached the summit I personally saw the dangers that await on this magnificient peak. A must for any backcountry climber.

Rating:
Summary: Wilcox's response to Snyder........
Review: White Winds tells the story of the Wilcox Expedition of summer of 1967 when seven out of twelve climbers frozed to death along the slopes of Mount McKinley. This proves to be one of this nation's greatest mountaineering disasters in modern history.

The author was the leader of this expedition and this book was in all reasons, written in response to the book written by Howard Snyder, titled "Hall of the Mountain King" where Snyder basically put most of the blame for the disaster on Wilcox's shoulders.

Wilcox's book proves to be up to the task. Not only he writes very well and tell a chilling story of how his expedition met with disaster but he supplied details notes, letters, logs, radio communications and even a detail scienific explanation of the devastating winds that killed seven members of his expedition.

Obviously the author was making an all out efforts to clear his name and defend himself from Snyder's book. But instead of attacking Snyder, he was effective in blaming nature for the disaster. According the Wilcox and cornerstone of his defense was that the forces of nature, so strong and so powerful that no one was ready to deal with it and the seven who died, died because of such force that was beyond any human control and not because of any human element, mainly him.

I think both Snyder and Wilcox covered what happened on that mountain pretty well in their two books. Anyone who have any interest in mountaineering should read this book as a good object lesson. Not being a mountaineer myself, I read it for the exciting but tragic story and for that, it was an experience enough.

Rating:
Summary: Important reading for first time Denali climbers
Review: Wilcox was part of a climbing group that split part way through their climb. The end result of the expidition was tragic. This book, particularly when read along with Howard Snyder's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", is a brilliant read, a dissertation on the strength of the human spirit and the potential Denali holds for all climbers. If you are climbing the Muldrow Glacier route you need this book.

Rating:
Summary: Important reading for first time Denali climbers
Review: Wilcox was part of a climbing group that split part way through their climb. The end result of the expidition was tragic. This book, particularly when read along with Howard Snyder's "In the Hall of the Mountain King", is a brilliant read, a dissertation on the strength of the human spirit and the potential Denali holds for all climbers. If you are climbing the Muldrow Glacier route you need this book.