The Challenge of Winter

Climbers have been scaling Mount McKinley ever since 1913, but North America's tallest peak is still one of the most forbidding mountains in the world. From the floor of the Susitna River valley, 1,500 ft. above sea level, the mountain sweeps to 20,320 ft. above central Alaska in a single cascade of rock and ice. In summer, McKinley is merely inhospitable; in winter, it is deadly. For one thing, it is among the coldest places on earth. Actual temperatures range to as low as--100DEG. Until Feb. 28, no one had climbed Mount McKinley in the wintertime. The men who did it finally made their way back to civilization last week. If what they went through is taken as a warning, no one is likely to try again.

The ordeal began on Jan. 30, when a party of eight climbers headed by Colorado's Gregg Blomberg, 25, landed by airplane on Kahiltna Glacier, 7,250 ft. up McKinley's west slope. Less than 24 hours later, France's Jacques Batkin, who was bringing supplies to the base camp at 7,600 ft., plunged 50 ft. to his death in a crevasse hidden by snow and ice. Dr. George Wichman, an orthopedic surgeon and amateur mountaineer from Anchorage, Alaska, saw him fall. "One minute Jacques was there," recalls Wichman. "He was hauling his load, chest thrown out, shoulders back. And then he was gone."

Zero Visibility. After laboriously working their way up the mountain, the remaining seven climbers reached the 17,300-ft. level by Feb. 26. One day later, all seven tried a 3,000-ft. dash to the summit. They were forced back by "white-out"--zero visibility, caused by fog against the snow. Next day, three of the party--Art Davidson, Ray Genet and Dave Johnston--struck out again for the top, finally made it at 7 p.m., paused just long enough to bury Batkin's cap and started back down, only to run into a raging storm.

For six days, the three huddled in a trench at 18,200 ft. Their supplies ran out, and only the lucky discovery of a food cache left by summertime climbers saved them. Unaware of the cache, their four companions 900 ft. below gave them up for lost; Blomberg and John Edwards battled their way back to 10,000 ft. and stamped out a message in the snow: WEX6--DON-HELP. An observation plane relayed it to Anchorage. Instantly a massive rescue operation was under way.

Stiff & Frightening. Two Army "Huey" helicopters flew out of Talkeetna to search for the missing climbers. Up from Seattle to help came half a dozen volunteers, including Jim Whittaker, who in 1963 became the first American to scale Mount Everest. It took rescuers four days to locate the seven climbers. The summit men were picked up by helicopter at 13,350 ft. Blomberg and Edwards got back to the base camp by themselves; Wichman and Shiro Nishimae were located in an igloo at 10,200 ft. They were suffering from nothing more serious than stiff muscles, frostbite and a frightening feeling that they had used up a lot of their luck. What was it like up there? Blurted one of the climbers: "It was blowing like hell. Blowing like hell. Blowing like hell."

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