Original subtitles

(gentle music)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] A land as rugged as it is magnificent.

(insects chirping)

Dominated by monumental forces of nature.

Towering above it all is Mount McKinley.

Nowhere else on the entire continent of North America

has the earth pushed itself so high

and so dramatically into the sky.

In the next hour, we'll discover a back country Mecca

for all who seek solitude,

a vast open tundra where wildlife roam free.

We'll rappel up the icy edge of a glacial crevasse

and take to the air over a river of ice.

We'll raft down a raging rapids

and cruise a river bed

to uncover a frontier glorious and wild.

(upbeat music)

And we'll let you in on the many secrets

of Alaska's Denali National Park.

(gentle music)

Stretching across 6 million acres

in the central part of the nation's largest state, Alaska,

Denali National Park remains a wilderness

remote and mostly unexplored.

Where snows and avalanches, deep cold and darkness

rule this sub-Arctic region

seven to eight months of the year.

Thaws in spring and summer bring up to 24 hours of light

to this land of the midnight sun

and some of the warmest weather in all Alaska.

The Alaska Range, a majestic 650 mile-long chain

of mountains divides the park into two distinct climates.

On the north side, much of the lower area of the park

is covered by a spruce forest mixed with aspen,

poplar and birch called taiga,

a Russian word for the woodlands of the far North.

At higher elevations, the treeless alpine tundra takes over.

Hosting a variety of dwarf shrubs

and plants that have adapted to a short growing season,

the tundra provides a habitat

for the park's abundant wildlife.

In contrast, the South side of the Alaska Range

is wet with rain and year-round snow,

as hundreds of glaciers or rivers of ice

moving slowly under the force of gravity

carve out the valleys and gorges.

- One of the unique advantages

of working in Alaskan parks is they're large enough

where you can see both sides of an ecosystem process

where you see the before and after,

where a glacier is and where it has been,

and where it's forming.

So you can actually study what a process

looks like as it's happening

and it's a perfect natural laboratory for that.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Rising above it all is Mt. McKinley,

the highest peak on the North American continent.

The first humans to set foot

in what is now Denali National Park

were the Athabascan people,

who called the mountain, Denali, meaning the high one.

Soaring to an elevation of 20,320 feet at the summit,

it lives up to its name.

You'd think the view of one of the largest

single objects on Earth would be hard to miss.

And on a clear day,

the mountain is visible for over 150 miles.

But finding a clear day is not so simple.

The mountain creates its own weather system,

with storms that shroud it in clouds,

two thirds of the time.

But when Mt. McKinley does appear, the view is astounding.

(bright music)

Chugging along the tracks between Fairbanks

and Anchorage to Denali, the blue and yellow cars

of the Denali Express are a welcome sight year-round.

Visitors hop aboard for a ride through the Alaskan country

that makes getting there half the fun.

Two dome-roofed cars offer panoramic views

and nobody's in a rush.

The Denali Star slows down about 25% of the time

to let visitors take in the scenery.

Onboard, you'll meet some well-versed

local high school students

who act as tour guides in the summer months,

a time when the park receives the majority of its visitors.

(bright music)

Carving a railroad across a remote territory

with extreme weather was a daunting task.

After private investors failed,

the US government took over the job

that required importing absolutely everything.

Eight years and $60 million later, in 1923

President William Harding drove a golden spike

into the track at the town of Nenana,

50 miles north of the park

and officially opened the railroad.

It truly was a railroad through the wilderness.

In the first year of operation,

only 62 passengers traveled by train.

Today, thousands of people make the same trip,

following the flat terrain leading to the point

where the Alaska Range majestically comes into view.

(bell ringing)

The destination, the Denali Park Station inside the park

where travelers either meet tour buses

or make their own way to the main visitor center

to hook up with the park's shuttle bus system.

- Thank you.

- [Narrator] Their ticket

to experiencing the great outdoors.

(gentle music)

Near the visitor center, a piece of park history

is preserved at headquarters,

where the original 1920s and 30s

log buildings are still in use.

Among them you'll find one

of the most popular places, The Kennels.

In a land with an emphasis on winter,

these Alaskan huskies are a star attraction year-round,

complete with individual doghouses

that sport their own names.

They're actually bred for temperament

and that's a good thing since the Denali Park Kennel

draws nearly 50,000 visitors each summer.

(gentle music)

This park has been home to sled dogs since 1922

when Harry Karstens, the first park superintendent

brought in the dogs as a means

of patrolling for game poachers.

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Today between October and April,

sled dogs are the only transportation permitted

over one third of the park lands,

apart from snowshoeing or skiing.

Karen Fortier leads Denali's dog sled program.

- Now some of you still may wonder,

isn't there greater means of transportation today?

What are some reasons you think

we might still want to use them today?

- [Woman] Don't have noise pollution.

- Yeah, noise.

Two million acres of the park

is designated as wilderness land.

So within those wilderness areas

we don't use mechanized vehicles.

And it's sort of to keep that natural silence

in the world today that's kind of a shrinking resource.

(dogs barking)

- [Narrator] Breeding and training the dogs

is all done at the park.

A musher is likened to a coach who puts together a team

to complement canine strengths and weaknesses.

- It's all voice command.

So when you say gee, they gonna go to the right

and when you say haw, they're gonna go to the left.

When you say whoa, you're hoping that they stop.

But that's the hardest command to teach any sled dog.

- Think they like what they do?

- Yeah. (audience laughing)

- There is nothing in the world that they love more

than to run and pull a sled

and you can kinda see that as how excited they get

and they even do this three times a day.

And if you can multiply that level of excitement

by about 100, that's what they look like in the wintertime.

- [Narrator] The dogs of Denali are distinct.

A larger freight-style of dog with a heavier coat

makes them more like a breed found in these parts

earlier in the 20th century.

Their long legs are suited for running

through untracked snows

and they have an excellent memory

for routes that lead to shelter from year to year.

(gentle music)

While these natural-born runners

vie for any opportunity to sprint,

they're also perfect hosts.

When the spring snows melt and the crowds come in,

they take time off to mingle

and enjoy the dog days of summer.

Each year an estimated 300,000 people

venture to Denali National Park

in search of one of the last frontiers.

Yet they're only able to cover a tiny fraction of a place

where a lone road through the middle of a vast landscape

is one of a few hints of civilization.

The park banned vehicles in the 1970s

in order to protect the wildlife.

And with the exception of the first 15 miles,

today it's Denali by bus.

(gentle music)

The gateway to the park is the Denali Visitor Center.

Here you see firsthand the park's role in regulating travel,

from campsites to back country permits, mapping

and mandatory training.

Venturing out into this wilderness requires pre-planning.

Once on the bus, drivers become your guides.

- Good morning.

Hopefully you have food and water with you.

There's no place to get water out in the park.

On the side of the building here,

left of the phones, there's a spigot.

You can fill a water bottle at this time

if you need to do that.

- [Narrator] The bus makes frequent stops along the road

to pick up or drop off backpackers

heading out where the only trails are animal trails.

(slow music)

At Savage River,

the dueling architects of water

and ice are apparent.

Here a glacier-carved U-shaped valley

meets a water-carved V-shaped valley.

Along the Savage River Trail, one of a few in the park,

a hardworking group of volunteers are mastering the art

of trail building on what is called a social trail.

(gentle music)

Because it's close to the road,

so many visitors climb Savage Rock that the park

has opted to build a single trail to minimize the impact.

(hammering)

A crew of five to eight people

take an average of 16 to 29 hours

to build 10 feet of trail by hand.

It's slow going but for those who volunteer

it's more than a job.

- There's a spiritual component in it for me.

There's something euphoric

and something meditative about

hearing the chinking on the rocks,

hearing the mew gulls making their sounds

and just the wind.

The weather is always really, really beautiful

since we've been up here.

Yeah, there's something spiritual about it.

(upbeat music)

- [Narrator] The Savage River check-in station is symbolic.

From here, traffic is limited to park buses.

Other vehicles can only proceed by special pass.

For those who venture on, the character of the road

changes from paved to gravel as the land becomes wilder

but it's not just about wildlife.

(slow music)

Denali's rugged back country calls to the more adventurous.

People step off the road

and they're almost immediately

immersed in a pristine

and at times inhospitable country,

much like the first explorers who ventured here.

- We're gonna head on down this way.

- [Narrator] For those who find trail-less travel

too intimidating, a discovery hike

led by a ranger is the way to go.

Although this tundra may look barren,

shrubs growing knee to waist high

give the bush country its name

and there's much more to it.

- [Ranger] If you guys wanna see

what caribou tracks look like,

here's some good ones right over here.

Now we can tell that it has a hoof,

because of these two different parts

of the track. (river flowing)

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] As the land becomes more winding

and wild, several natural phenomena might catch your eye.

The valleys of mud, gravel

and silt are a result of glacial carving.

Melting ice, snow

and rain form braided rivers

or rivers that meander

from bank to bank in several channels.

Their patterns change during

the course of a day with the weather.

Anyone traveling on them needs to be aware

the levels can also change dramatically.

Approaching the Polychrome Pass,

once nicknamed Poison Point

'cause one drop will kill ya, the twists

and turns lead to a view

that's a multicolored sight to behold.

And it offers another glimpse into Denali's geologic past,

a past that stretches back millions of years.

The array of hues are a result of volcanic eruptions

that once dominated the region.

Volcanoes are just one of Earth's forces

that shape this spectacular place.

Frequent earthquakes speak to a land still in the making.

According to Phil Brease,

the chief geologist at Denali National Park,

Alaska is one of the most

active earthquake areas in the world

and Denali is located in the northern end

of the seismic action.

An ongoing series of earthquakes are monitored.

- They're often quite deep too

because the earthquakes are usually happening

where the plate sub ducting beneath Alaska.

- [Narrator] Where climbers up on Mount McKinley

have reported feeling the shake of a quake,

most quakes go unnoticed

because they occur at depths of 100 kilometers

beneath the earth.

A seismograph in Eielson Visitor Center

can be the only visible sign of trauma.

Located at the 66 mile marker,

Eielson is a main check in point along the park road

and it bustles with activity.

- We call this dewclaws.

- Do they serve any purpose?

- [Narrator] From ranger demonstrations,

- Raise your right hand,

- [Narrator] To the swearing in of junior Rangers,

- As a junior Ranger,

- As a junior Ranger,

- I promise--

- [Narrator] It also offers an opportunity

to get a closer look at Mount McKinley.

Like the quakes, the answer

to the question of what makes this mountain so massive

can be found beneath the earth.

- Here in Alaska is we're sort of a receiving end

of kinda a big kind air belt

that we think of as the Pacific plate

or Pacific ocean plate

and that plate is migrating northward

at rates of four to six centimeters per year

and slamming into Alaska

and crunching it against the Arctic basin,

kind of like a big accordion.

So it's getting pushed up by that crunch.

- [Narrator] While the mountain is uplifting,

at a rate of two millimeters per year,

on the surface, massive

and powerful erosion devices in the form of glaciers

and rivers constantly carve the rock away.

The secret to McKinley's height

is its resistance to weathering.

- [Phil] It's made of very hard granite rock

and it's surrounded or intruded into

sedimentary rock that's very soft all around it.

So the sedimentary rock actually weathers away faster,

exposing more of the granite.

- [Narrator] The road winds its way

to the Kantishna district

where you'll find another piece of park history.

91 miles from what is now the park entrance.

There was gold in DeMatha hills.

In 1905, two prospectors struck gold at Glacier Creek

and the gold stampede was on.

Tales of big strikes lured hoards of prospectors

to the area.

Mining camps sprung up overnight.

- But only about 15

minors had the claims along Glacier

and Eureka creeks, which were

where the paying quantities of gold were found.

And so pretty soon, it dissipated

but in the meantime, towns grew up

and here on this site was the town of Eureka

and later to Kantishna.

- [Narrator] The gold rush played a pivotal role

in the establishment of the park.

One of the early founders, Charles Sheldon,

was concerned about the killing of game

to feed the mining camps.

So in 1917, Mount McKinley National Park was set aside,

not to protect the gold or the miners

but as a game preserve.

In 1980, an additional 4 million acres was added

and mindful of its native American past,

the name was changed to Denali National Park and Preserve.

Today, Kantishna is part of the park,

where you'll find remnants of the gold rush.

The two-storey original Roadhouse,

built in 1905, once provided food, lodging

and supplies to the 2,000 miners who camp nearby

and the old recorder's cabin

was the place where miners came to register their claims.

Joe Quigley, one of the first

and most successful miners met his wife, Fannie

in Kantishna.

When the Quigleys divorced, Fannie stayed on.

Her cabin, where she hosted both prospectors

and park visitors for over 30 years

has been restored by the park.

Inside time is turned back.

A wood burning stove for heat

and simple furnishings are reminders

of a hard life in the wilderness,

as well as a tribute to Fannie Quigley

who was said to garden with a vengeance,

hunt like a man

and entertain like a queen.

Her pioneering spirit made her a local legend.

All mining operations in the park

were halted in 1985 with one exception.

- You're gonna pick up a scoop of water

and you're gonna mix it up

and be prepared 'cause the water's cold

and you're gonna mix it up

and then you're gonna dump it off.

- [Narrator] Visitors are permitted to pan for gold.

So if you wanna try your luck,

pick up a pan

and head for the chilly waters of Eureka Creek

to get a lesson in panning for gold

from an Alaskan gold miner's granddaughter.

- Now gold is denser than anything else in this pan,

so it's gonna sink to the bottom.

So don't be afraid about it being on the top

'cause it's gonna sink.

So you just keep doing this over and over and over again

and every time, you dump off water,

you gotta dump off a little bit of dirt

until you get down to this fine stuff.

- [Narrator] Just like the prospectors of yesteryear,

the boom is a bust

and most leave empty handed,

except for a few shiny souvenirs.

(gentle music)

The Kantishna Roadhouse provides cabins

and a welcoming lodge

where visitors come for lunch or longer stays.

All set in a spot that grimes with gold rush history

and something more.

Owned and operated

by the first human inhabitants of the park, the Athabaskans,

this is the place to learn about local native culture.

(native singing)

- Here in the interior, The Athabaskan Indians

have for centuries roamed this land

and actually Kantishna is an Athabaskan Indian word,

which means heart.

The Athabaskan people were nomadic.

They followed the caribou, they followed the fish.

They didn't settle in communities,

they just followed the food basically

and so this is where they came to do the moose hunting.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Just up the road from the Kantishna Roadhouse,

Camp Denali is a remote wilderness hostelry.

(gentle music)

Founders, Celia Hunter

and Ginny and Morton Wood, offered their guests a tent

and one of the first ever eco tourism experiences

back in the '50s.

Today, extended stays of three to four days are required

to give guests time to delve deeper into the back country.

One of the original tenants is left intact

so guests can see

what it was like to stay out here in the '50s.

This is no ordinary tent,

more like a cabin,

it came with a Coleman stove, furnishings, provisions

and bunk beds.

(gentle music)

Camp Denali has grown to 17 log cabins.

Accommodations at this getaway are cozy

and still relatively basic

and it's the only place to stay indoors in the park

that offers a view of Mount McKinley,

although that, depends on the mountain.

On any given day,

the weather from one end of the park to another,

is a constant variable.

In the summer months, it rains more than half of the time,

yet Alaskans never let it get in their way.

- If you're prepared for it, you'll love the changes

because the park changes, the light changes.

There's always something wonderful to see

no matter what the weather is.

You wanna come with clothes that are layered,

that you're able to take on and off

because you might see some rain, sunshine, wind,

even a tad of snow perhaps

but it only adds to the experience.

It doesn't take away from it.

The Denali Back Country Lodge offers equipment

and instruction for a variety of activities, rain or shine,

and there are plenty of places to kick back

and enjoy the moment.

(dramatic music)

The mountains and shimmering lakes

of Denali National Park in Alaska,

provide the backdrop

for one of the premier places on the planet,

to spot wildlife.

High above the timber line, the doll sheep.

The only species of wild white sheep in the world,

add a pastoral grace to a rough country.

From their strategic view,

these elusive cliff dwellers

use their eyes to detect most signs of danger.

Their strong legs are made for speed in steep country.

When they do come down from the mountain sides to migrate,

they do so with extreme caution.

That's when they're most vulnerable to predators.

Around the park, caribou are another common site.

While they may look peculiar, truth be told,

they spend much of their time

on the move feeding and fleeing the parasitic flies

that plague them.

Caribou often take to the road with a swinging trot,

traveling alone, in small groups

or in bands of 200 to 2,000 in winter.

The Denali caribou are unique

because their entire migratory range

of some 3,900 miles is included within

the boundaries of the park.

Unlike moose or other members of the deer family,

it's more difficult to tell who's who by their head gear,

since both sexes sport their own rack of antlers.

As with any wildlife, keeping a respectful distance is key.

At this rest stop,

it's very clear who has the right of way.

Denali is also bear country.

Black bears that inhabit the deep forest areas

are rarely seen in the heart of the park.

Unlike a grizzly, they can climb trees with ease

and they tend to stay clear of the open range.

The park road cuts through a grizzly habitat,

so the farther you venture out,

the more likely you are to spot a grizzly bear.

While spotting a bear from a safe distance is awesome,

when exploring this country on foot,

no creature sparks as much fear.

Bears can be dangerous to humans.

Back in the '80s, Denali National Park

had a high rate of bear encounters per back country user.

Now, it's a model for successful bear management,

although the Rangers say,

it's more accurate to call it human management.

A program that begins with mandatory education

before anyone hits the back country.

Since hikers are required to carry

bear resistant food containers

and trash containers

have been retrofitted with bear resistant lids,

most bears have gotten the message.

There's no payoff for encounters with humans

and humans are monitored as well.

- What we have here is a bull caribou that was killed

right about here, about a half a mile off the road,

there's a sauna cub on it right now.

- And it's right down on the gravel bar?

- It is on the gravel bar.

- If we have a kill,

somewhere where we know there will be a lot of people,

if there's a travel corridor to a back country unit

or an area where we know there's gonna be a lot of

day hikers, we'll close an area

to keep people out of there.

And we do that for a number of reasons.

One is, for safety of the humans

because if someone happens to get too close

to a bear that's on a kill,

it poses a dangerous situation for those people.

As well as, to keep disturbance to the animals to a minimum.

- [Narrator] Rangers try to minimize outside impact,

so bears can focus strictly on their own survival.

Survival, that has been the subject of study

by the park since 1991.

Monitoring the bears has led to some Denali bear facts.

There are an estimated 350 grizzlies

that roam some 80 to 270 square miles of parkland.

While a bear can live into its twenties,

one female has reached the ripe old age of 35.

The amount of bears varies from season to season.

Sadly, 70% of all cubs

die before the end of their first year.

The study revealed lifespan in this sub-arctic region

has a lot to do with the physical condition

of the mother bear.

(bright music)

These three young cubs set off down the hill,

while their mom was working her way through a berry patch

but they weren't out of sight or out of mind.

Once scent determines there's no danger,

everyone is called back to the berries.

(bird chirping) Beyond bears,

wildlife at Denali includes 167 species of birds.

Some migrate to the park from as far away as South America.

Smaller critters give the area much of its wild character

and round out the food chain.

Out of its elaborate system of underground dens,

this marmot flattens out on a rock.

Camouflaged from predators, it catches some rays.

The marmot's whistle warnings

alert an array of species,

including the arctic ground squirrel.

It stands at attention, with good reason.

They're small bite size,

makes them a source of meat to many of the parks predators,

including this fox who's out looking for a meal.

(gentle music)

In the many ponds and creeks,

there's plenty of evidence of beavers

and their cooperative projects.

One of their dams at Wonder Lake,

actually raised the lake level

a record two feet in the '60s.

Although they're mostly nocturnal,

in the late afternoon, they can be out and about.

These large rodents weigh up to 60 pounds.

Their back feet make excellent paddles.

This beaver is busy multitasking,

using its front feet as hands to feed on a twig,

it glides through the water.

The secret to spotting a moose,

is to stay away from the open tundra.

Look for tree-lined habitats

that provide both food and cover.

Near the entrance to the park,

a bull moose trims the trees.

Moose are herbivores,

meaning they eat the branches, twigs

and bark of trees

and, they eat a lot of it.

Weighing over a thousand pounds,

a large moose can consume up to 50 pounds of willow a day.

They're also tolerant to people.

They'll stand 75 to a 100 feet away

and go about their business.

Yet for humans, the very sight of a moose,

can cause a moose jam.

Only the males called bulls, grow antlers

that begin popping up in late winter

and grow for several months

before turning to dense bone by the end of summer.

The bulls use their antlers to attract cows

or females during mating season

and to defend their right to mate.

- Antlers are weapons

and bull moose use them to fight with other bull moose.

Say, engage antlers

and they push

and they twist

and they fight by using these weapons,

there are sharp points on the antlers

and occasionally bulls inflict a lot of damage on them.

to the point where occasionally bulls die

during rutting fights.

- [Narrator] After mating season's over,

the bulls shed these potential lethal weapons.

Wildlife biologist, Vic Van Valkenburgh,

is the parks resident expert on moose.

He says people have a lot of misconceptions

about these mammoth mammals.

- I think people think they're big

and dumb and slow and ungainly

and all those kinds of things,

and to me, they're none of that.

I mean, they are big but they're fast.

They can run 35 miles an hour.

They're not dumb.

They're intelligent to the point

where they make decisions as to,

what they're going to do on a daily basis

in order to survive.

(slow music)

- [Narrator] Denali is considered to be the premier place

to study sub-arctic mammals.

One of them foremost researchers of ecology, Adolph Murie,

spent his summers living in a one room cabin

on the East Fork river.

His observations of the parks wildlife for over 40 years,

changed the way wildlife biologists view predators.

Especially the wolf, who he thought

was just out making an honest living.

Dr. Gordon Haber claims he studies the descendants

of the same wolfs that Murie began observing in the '30s.

Unlike Murie, Dr. Haber takes to the air

to follow the wolves of Denali.

With a tracking device,

he's able to monitor the wolf populations

across a much broader area

than he could possibly cover on foot.

Back on the ground, he's well aware of the location

of their remote dens.

While he isn't exactly what you call a wolf whisperer,

he does seem to speak their language

(howling)

and the wolves howl back in response.

(wolves howling)

According to Dr. Haber,

it's a misnomer to say wolves live in packs.

They're social creatures who live in large family groups

and wolves are extremely bright.

- I guess the best way

to visualize it,

is thinking of the most intelligent dog you've ever known.

The most expressive, intelligent,

emotional dog you've ever known.

That's nothing but an average wolf

and of course, wolves have to be more intelligent

and expressive than all the rest

because they have a much harder life than a dog does.

- [Narrator] These carnivores hunt in groups,

feeding on the weakest sheep, moose

and caribou and other creatures.

- They have to be very selective

in order not to kill when they enter tangle

with these bigger, stronger critters.

- [Narrator] wolves and other predators

are now viewed as an important link

in the cycle of natural selection.

Denali National Park became a national park

to preserve wild life.

And it remains one of the best places, to stand back

and get a glimpse of the animal world.

(slow music)

At Denali National park in Alaska,

the gently sloping tundra of the sub-arctic

meets the pinnacle of North America, Mount McKinley.

(slow music)

Around the park on any given day during the summer,

you'll see professional photographers

in search of the most beautiful sites.

Following them will inevitably lead you

to the shores of Wonder Lake,

85 miles into Denali National Park.

It is the closest one can get to the mountain

from the park road

and its beauty can speak to the soul.

On a glorious August day,

one photographer mounted his camera on a kayak

to capture the lake

and the mountain in the distance.

But for him, the real payoff is just being there.

- It gives you just a feeling,

it's like I guess like a religion.

You come here

and it's just very mellow

and very nice

and just beautiful everywhere you look

and if it's cloudy in the mountains, not out,

you've got wildlife all over.

It's just a wild place.

- [Narrator] Wonder lake is another aftermath

of the ice age.

A receding glacier carved out this two and a half mile long,

280 foot deep natural wonder, some 14,000 years ago.

It's surrounded by all sorts of vibrant wild flowers

and bushes filled with berries.

Following the road to the East leads to Reflection pond

where on the rare days when the water is perfectly still

and the sky is clear, the pond is a mirror

for Mount McKinley.

At sunset, the Northern light blades

the Alaskan range in a vibrant pinkish effect,

known as the Alpenglow.

This picture perfect moment

has become one of the classic images

of the American wilderness.

While most are content to gaze upon mountains,

others are called to conquer them.

(soft guitar music)

At the onset of the 20th century, Mount McKinley,

the largest peak on the North American continent,

began drawing daredevil adventurers from all over the world

and with them, came stories of triumph and tragedy.

In 1906, explorer Dr. Frederick Cook's second attempt

to summit Mount McKinley was a highly publicized event.

After wandering around on Ruth Glacier,

named after Cook's daughter,

Cook and a packer parted ways with their expedition.

He returned claiming to have made it to the top

within an unbelievably short two weeks

and he offered up a photograph to prove it.

For Dr. Cook, a picture was his undoing.

Poor cropping left the corner of a peek exposed.

An expedition in 1910 found Cook's fake peak,

placing him 11 miles away from the summit.

Cook's hopes inspired a ragtag group of local miners

nicknamed the Sour Dose, to attempt an ascent

with only crude climbing implements.

Where knowledge of the geography

and gumption, contributed to their phenomenal feet,

they mistakenly climbed to the top of the North peak,

850 feet below the true summit.

Finally, in 1913, a climbing expedition

that included Harry Karstens,

who would become the park's first superintendent,

reached the highest peak.

It's fitting that the first person among them

to set foot on the summit of Denali,

the high one was Walter Harper,

a native Alaskan of Athabaskan descent.

Approximately 1,200 people attempt the climb each year.

As they step off the plane onto the glacier,

their bodies immediately undergo changes.

Thin air and the elevation make breathing difficult.

And no matter what you eat, you'll lose weight.

An average climber burns 5,500 calories a day.

Climbing this mountain,

also means traversing glaciers filled with crevasses

hundreds of feet deep.

It only takes one look into this abyss

to know that your next step could be your last.

Long poles are used to route find

or search for hidden crevasses.

If you punch through to feel air,

then you know to take a detour.

Yet there are limits to what you can see or feel.

- You can't tell how

strong all the snow bridges are.

So we need to have a backup safety system in place,

and that's where the harnesses, the ropes,

us being spread out on a rope team,

the majority of big crevasse falls

translates directly to slack in the system

and someone wasn't walking at the exact pace

of the person in the front of the rope team.

And that's the challenge is that you can't

walk at your own pace.

You need to walk at the pace of the person in the front.

- I'm gonna go down into this hole, into this crevasse

and ascend up the line

and this is how I can self rescue myself

if I were to fall in a hole in a real situation.

- [Narrator] Climbers must train

for every eventuality on the mountain.

Using a device called an Ascender

and a series of knots

that act as pulleys, allows a person

to shimmy up the icy edge of a crevasse.

If all else fails, climbers have to be hauled out

by their rope team.

- It's always a good feeling get out on top again.

- [Narrator] Yet the biggest challenge on the mountain

isn't crossing the glaciers.

It's the erratic weather.

During climbing season, May through July,

snow storms can create whiteout conditions.

Temperatures can drop to 50 degrees below zero,

with ferocious 80 to 100 mile an hour winds.

And the higher you go, the more problems you have.

- We have frostbite injuries

just 'cause of the extreme cold,

with a huge amount like this that's so far North.

We have altitude injuries or altitude illnesses.

- [Narrator] At 18,000 feet,

the air contains only 50% oxygen.

Breathing it can cause loss of strength, sleep, appetite

and reasoning.

Park Rangers say, inexperience

and bad judgment account for 90% of all climbing accidents.

- When you're on the top of Denali,

you have about 50% of the mental capacity

you do as at sea level.

And it's probably true for most people.

I know I was asked a simple math problem

when I was up there this year

and they say I was always off from getting the right answer

but I've never been a mathematician.

- [Narrator] When extreme weather conditions

trigger climbing accidents,

the drama begins.

(man speaking on radio) (dramatic music)

A drama that included one

of the world's highest short haul rescues.

In 1998, two British climbers were lifted off the mountain

by the park services high altitude helicopter

at 19,000 feet.

In spite of the heroic efforts,

there are fatalities on the mountain,

among the many happier endings.

In a year with good weather,

half the climbers share the euphoria of reaching the top

and there are always new mountaineering milestones.

In 2001, Galen Johnston,

an 11 year old from the nearby town of Talkeetna,

was the youngest person ever to summit.

Galen began climbing at age two.

Mountain climbing with the Johnston's is a family affair.

His father Dave, breathed minus 148 degree weather

in the first winter ascent of Denali in 1967.

Like all expeditions, training to tackle Mount McKinley

began on lower altitude mountains.

- It started with going to Naipaul

to see if I did well at altitude

and that was in '99

and so we just went up in the Everest region

and saw that I did fine at 18,000 feet.

So I figured that was pretty good trial

and came back

and next year went up.

- [Narrator] And success for the Johnston's

was dependent upon the weather.

- Our summit day was so just clear

and relatively warm,

10 degrees but... (laughs)

and no wind.

It was on father's day.

So as my dad says, it's the best father's day present

I have ever given him.

It was just really powerful

to be up there as a family

and look back at our house

and be able to now think that I've been up there.

- [Narrator] Radiant and daunting,

Mount McKinley stands among the world's superlative summits.

(gentle music)

In the millions of acres of open country

surrounding Denali National Park and Preserve,

distances are deceptive.

What appears to be 10 miles, may in fact be 50

and the land unfolds in front of you

for as far as the eye can see.

(helicopter whirling) (gentle music)

Beyond the parks boundaries,

adventurers take to the air

to cover more ground.

Hella hiking, offers an opportunity for a bird's eye view,

before setting out on foot.

Since a helicopter doesn't need a long landing strip,

there are more options for drop-off points.

To allow deeper discovery of the Alaskan interior,

guides lead day trips

or you can head out on your own.

(gentle music)

The helicopter will return to take you home.

Needless to say, the pickup is one deadline

you won't want to miss.

(river flowing)

Other adventure seekers take to the water.

Several Outfitters located near the entrance to the park,

provide gear, instruction

and transportation to the river's edge.

Rafting this far North requires both a wetsuit

and a lecture on what to do if you fall out of the boat.

- If you start drifting away from the boat,

it's going to take some real aggressive swim strokes

to get back to the boat.

You gotta get back.

If the current's grabbing you

and you can't swim back to the boat,

then we wanna see you get in a defensive swimming position.

You gonna be on your back,

your feet are gonna to be going downstream

and you want your feet on the surface of the water.

Pretty much looks just like that.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Once you hit the water

with temperatures averaging 36 degrees in the summer,

you'll be glad for the gear

and the expertise.

The ride down the raging the Nenana river

is an exhilarating one.

(group cheering)

If you wanna get there with even less effort,

Denali Sightseeing Safaris offers a thrill ride.

These customized monster trucks with 64 inch wheels

weigh in at 14,000 pounds.

They're not only designed to travel through rugged terrain,

they can cruise down the gravel filled beds

of the braided rivers.

Riding high and dry in the cab,

keeps everyone above the fray of the Alaskan bush

and getting to the back country outside the park

is made easy, especially if the weather isn't the best.

On the South side of Denali National Park,

surrounded by a chorus of icy peaks,

a scenic flight is the way to get a sweeping view

of one of the most spectacular sites,

Ruth Glacier.

Here the snowfields

that blanket McKinley

and surrounding mountains year-round,

give way to colossal rivers of ice

that flow 20 to 30 miles

through the deepest gorge in North America.

- The Ruth Glacier is one of the deepest,

temperate glaciers measured outside of Greenland

and Antarctica.

It's over 3,000 feet thick of ice

but from the bottom of the gorge

to the top of the neighboring mountain

is over twice the size of El Capitan in Yosemite park.

So it is a very interesting glacier

and one of the fastest moving glaciers in the park.

Moving about three feet a day.

(plane engine roaring)

High up on Ruth Glacier,

sits one of the park's top secret spots,

the Mountain House.

On the way up to this house, watch your step.

This is a glacier

where crevasses are always a potential threat.

(gentle music)

At this modest one room shelter hut,

you have to bring all your own gear

and book a night well in advance

but it offers a view you won't find anywhere else

in the world.

(gentle music)

From this incredible site, a 360 degree panorama

of massive 10 to 12,000 foot peaks

surround the roof amphitheater.

Just how this rustic outpost made it to the glacier,

is a story in itself.

It was built in 1963 as a safe haven

by one of the most legendary of all bush pilots.

Don Sheldon, the man who earned his reputation

as a daring aviator, beginning in the '50s.

Flying both people and cargo, he was the pioneer

of high altitude glacier landings.

- He was my inspiration.

He showed me the places to land on the mountain

and I sorta worked into it

by following him around with my aircraft

and he would always give me some baggage to carry,

his climbers whether they were going in or coming out.

So I had a wonderful time with Don

and he was just a perfect example to follow.

(plane engine roaring)

- [Narrator] Bush pilots, at the controls

of small one prop planes are the folk heroes of Alaska.

They're one of the few ways to get people in and out

of the distant parts of the nation's biggest state

and on and off the mountains.

Lowell Thomas Jr. first flew over Alaska

while producing a film

for his father's television series, "High Adventure".

(plane engine roaring)

After serving as Alaska's Lieutenant governor,

he began flying commercially in the '80s.

- Then with this airplane,

which is standing right behind me here,

I was able to make some 12 rescues up at 14,200 feet.

But rescues, you're fighting the winds

and the visibility

and sometimes you just have to back off

and can't do it.

But I've done quite a few of them

and we all do.

If we're flying climbers,

we're sooner or later gonna have to rescue

some of those guys.

(plane engine roaring)

- [Narrator] Outside the South side of the park,

60 flying miles from the summit of Mount McKinley,

you'll find the quirky, artsy town of Talkeetna.

Population, 770.

The town is the home base for launching mountaineering

and rescue missions

and for any type of flight seeing.

In fact, Talkeetna owes much of its history

and livelihood to the community of brave bush pilots.

- All the pilots here are seasoned veterans.

They do what they have to do to help people.

If you're in the bush

and you're sick

and you need somebody to come get ya,

some pilots can step up to the plane, come and get ya.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] The Talkeetna Historical Society Museum,

chronicles over a century of man's attempts

to conquer the mountain.

A topographical map of Mount McKinley details a rugged

and unforgiving country.

On the museum grounds, the props of down planes

are a memorial to the lives lost

and the courage of the bush pilots

who are a part of the spirit of this town.

Denali National Park and Preserve

offers as many wonders as it does dangers.

This place is the product of millions

of years of geologic change

and the earth continues to transform.

For many, it's simply a place to contemplate nature

and observe natural processes

undisturbed by modern man.

200 years since the first European settlements,

Denali remains a mostly unexplored wilderness.

- It is a link in some ways maybe to the future for some,

because we need to have places where

in this increasingly urbanized, mechanized,

bustling landscape, places where we can find the quiet,

the solitude and the slowness of pace.

- [Narrator] It's here animals roam free

and a vast landscape just unfolds seemingly forever

and its size is overwhelming.

From Denali by bus to the back country on foot.

From camping out, to taking on the mountain,

Denali has secrets around every turn.

(lively music)

People who enter this grand space try to capture it

but only for a moment.

(gentle music)

Ecologist Adolph Murie,

described the Northern exposure experience best.

"We come to Denali to watch,

"to catch a glimpse of the primeval.

"We come close to the Tundra flowers, the lichens

"and the animal life.

"Each of us will take some inspiration home.

"A touch of the tundra will enter our lives

"and deep inside make us poets

"and kindred spirits.

"Our national parks here in the North are set aside

"not only for Alaskans or for Americans,

"but for all humanity."

(bright music)