Table of Contents

Preface viii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Tools of the Trade 11

• The Roots of Discovery 11
• A Passion for Heights 14
• The Mountains Take Hold 20

2 Glaciers, Grosvenor, and Grand Explorations 28

• The Pathfinders 28
• Mount Fairweather 34
• Mount Crillon: If at First You Don't Succeed ... 39
• Washburn and Grosvenor 63
• The 1935 NGS Yukon Expedition 69
• John Kennedy's Mountain 75
• Through Uncharted Ice 80
• A Path Now Chosen 89

3 The War Years 95

• Lessons Learned and Forgotten 95
• The "Cold War" on the Home Front 100
• "The Mess at Wright" 110
• The Smoking Gun 113
• House of Cards 119
• "Unconventional Methods" 121
• The Dividends Emerge 124
• Death and Disappearance on Mount Deception 126
• New Horizons 144

4 Mount McKinley: Maps, Hollywood, and Cold War Science 148

• Discovering the Landscape 148
• The Mountaineers Arrive 153
• From Harvard to Hollywood 154
• Operation White Tower 163
• Mapping the Mountain Landscape 173
• Mr. McKinley 192

5 From Sledge to Shuttle 195

• The Washburn Legacy 195

Notes 209

Literature Cited 241

Index 255