Overview

The Seventymile Kid tells the remarkable account of Harry Karstens, who was the actual--if unheralded--leader of the Hudson Stuck Expedition that was the first to summit Mount McKinley in Alaska. All but forgotten by history, a young Karstens arrived in the Yukon during the 1897 Gold Rush, gained fame as a dog musher hauling U.S. Mail in Alaska, and eventually became the first superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park (now known as Denali National Park and Preserve). Aided by Karstens's own journals, longtime Denali writer and photographer Tom Walker uncovered archival information about the Stuck climb, and reveals that the Stuck ""triumph"" was an expedition marred by significant conflict. Without Karstens's wilderness skills and Alaska-honed tenacity, it is quite possible Hudson Stuck would never have climbed anywhere near the summit of McKinley. Yet the two men had a falling out shortly after the climb and never spoke again. In this book, Walker attempts to set the record straight about the historic first ascent itself, as well as other pioneer attempts by Frederick Cook and Judge Wickersham. Fans of Alaska literature, American history, and mountaineering lore will love this adventurous biography of the largerthan-life ""sourdough"" Karstens, in which Alaska--its wilderness, its iconic mountain, and its pioneer spirit--looms large.

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9798228614536

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Tom Walker has lived in Alaska for fifty years and is the author of more than a dozen books centered on his adopted home. A freelance photographer and writer, his work has been published in Alaska Magazine, Field and Stream, Readers' Digest, Newsweek, Audubon, Sierra, and many other regional and national publications. Tom lives in Denali Park. Basil Sands is an award-winning narrator working between the Chugach Mountains and Pacific Ocean in Anchorage, Alaska. He has narrated for many bestselling authors and helped many less-known authors climb that ladder. He's a former US Marine who for several years in the '90s ran the dining hall at the NSA, a.k.a. ""Chef to the Spies."" He's been a logger, carpenter, scoutmaster, wilderness rescue medic, senior IT guy, and novelist, and was a minister for over twenty-five years. He rents space in his basement to four Leprechaun brothers; they make the best lager. Basil Sands is an award-winning narrator working between the Chugach Mountains and Pacific Ocean in Anchorage, Alaska. He has narrated for many bestselling authors and helped many less-known authors climb that ladder. He's a former US Marine who for several years in the '90s ran the dining hall at the NSA, a.k.a. ""Chef to the Spies."" He's been a logger, carpenter, scoutmaster, wilderness rescue medic, senior IT guy, and novelist, and was a minister for over twenty-five years. He rents space in his basement to four Leprechaun brothers; they make the best lager.

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