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Results of the Expedition
The result of the two expeditions,
organized by the Adventure Club and the Vokrug Sveta magazine
(autumn 2005 and spring 2006) is the indisputable proof of
the fact that in 1906 a famous polar explorer Dr. Fredrick
Cook made the first ascent to the summit of Mt. McKinley (6194
m, Alaska, USA).
The mountaineers Oleg Banar
and Viktor Afanasjev, and a cameraman Valery Bagov, who joined
the team during the second part of the expedition, basing
on the hypothesis of Hans Waale, an American researcher, and
the Diary of Dr. Cook, have repeated the route of the pioneer
explorer, ascended the summit of the mountain and descended
along the same route back.
In the course of the expedition the courageous mountaineers
have also proved that Edward Barrille, a companion of Dr.
Cook during his ascent, who made the affidavit that their
route to the summit was interrupted in the middle part of
the Ruth Amphitheater, told a falsehood.
Oleg Banar, Viktor Afanasjev and Valery Bagov identified
the Peaks, which were drawn in the book by Dr. Cook, one of
which was named the Gunsight Peak and the other was later
named as the Pegasus Peak. The mountaineers ascended to the
head of the Ruth Glacier and discovered a logical And simple
pass from the East Ridge to the Basin of the Traleika Glacier
(not entering into the Traleika Col), made a traverse of the
Karstens Ridge and across the Denali Pass made an ascent to
the summit of Mt. McKinley.
It is very symbolic, that the good name of researcher and
pioneer explorer Dr. Frederick Cook was returned by the Russian
mountaineers. Our remote countrymen: kosaks, manufactures,
sailors, who lived in the Russian America in the XIX century,
were the first who saw Mt. McKinley, and a famous Russian
polar explorer and navigator Ferdinand Petrovitch Wrangell
was the first who marked the mountain on the geographical
map. The Russians named her as "Bolshaya Gora" (Big
Mountain), the Indians – as Denali, now the summit, for the
first time conquered by Dr. Frederick Cook, is named after
the 25-th American President – William McKinley.
Dr. Cook’s ascent route to the summit of
Mt. McKinley,
repeated again one hundred years later.
Photographs made by Valery Bagov
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