At 3 am on 7 June 1913, four men crawled from a makeshift tent. For weeks they had struggled to haul equipment to a snowy col, far above central Alaska's muskeg plains. Now, sufferingfrom altitude sickness and indigestion from an ill-advised experiment with home-made noodles, they faced one more challenge: a final push to the summit known to the native Americans as Denali-"The Great One". A brisk wind made for a cold so penetrating that the leader, a missionary whose duties included winter-long journeys by dog sled at temperatures down to -55℃, felt his feet go numb through six pairs of socks. But the men pressed on. Twelve hours later, with no prior mountaineering experience and improvised equipment, they laid claim to North America's loftiest peak.
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