Denali, in Alaska, is the tallest mountain in the United States. In 1906, Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the summit, which would make him the first to do so. However, no one believed him, especially after his photographic proof was identified as a different location (Cook later claimed to have been the first man to reach the North Pole). Alaskan miner Thomas Lloyd was skeptical about Cook's claims and said he could do better than Cook. The bartender replied, "Tom, you are too old and too fat to climb to the top of Denali."
There's nothing that will light a fire under a man like someone telling him he can't do something. And that was the beginning of the Sourdough Expedition of 1910, in which four guys with no climbing experience went up Denali and lived to tell about it. But if a movie were to be made about the expedition, it would be a comedy, as David Friedman of Ironic Sans explains. See, no one believed any of the four had reached the summit, and they had plenty of reasons to be skeptical. (via Laughing Squid)
Saturday, July 29, 2023
The Peculiar Sourdough Expedition
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4 comments:
Nope, nope, in 1906 and 1910 they were climbing, or claiming to climb, Mt McKinley.
Maybe, depending on how long they lived in Alaska by that time. It wasn't officially named Mt. Kinley until 1917. Even after that, locals called it Denali for a long time.
I stand corrected. But it was named McKinley in 1896.
If the locals who kept calling it Denali didn't care the government made McKinley official in 1917, why should anyone care if the locals called it Denali. Naming children is the parents prerogative, not the neighbors.
People were really upset when Mckinley was assassinated in 1901. But who cares about him today? How many Americans even know who he was... other than, "Wasn't he a president who got assassinated?" if that! On the other hand, "Denali" is a timeless name.
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