Results of the Expedition

The result of the two expeditions, organized by the Adventure Club and the Vokrug Sveta magazine (autumn 2005 and spring 2006) is the indisputable proof of the fact that in 1906 a famous polar explorer Dr. Fredrick Cook made the first ascent to the summit of Mt. McKinley (6194 m, Alaska, USA).

The mountaineers Oleg Banar and Viktor Afanasjev, and a cameraman Valery Bagov, who joined the team during the second part of the expedition, basing on the hypothesis of Hans Waale, an American researcher, and the Diary of Dr. Cook, have repeated the route of the pioneer explorer, ascended the summit of the mountain and descended along the same route back.

In the course of the expedition the courageous mountaineers have also proved that Edward Barrille, a companion of Dr. Cook during his ascent, who made the affidavit that their route to the summit was interrupted in the middle part of the Ruth Amphitheater, told a falsehood.

Oleg Banar, Viktor Afanasjev and Valery Bagov identified the Peaks, which were drawn in the book by Dr. Cook, one of which was named the Gunsight Peak and the other was later named as the Pegasus Peak. The mountaineers ascended to the head of the Ruth Glacier and discovered a logical And simple pass from the East Ridge to the Basin of the Traleika Glacier (not entering into the Traleika Col), made a traverse of the Karstens Ridge and across the Denali Pass made an ascent to the summit of Mt. McKinley.

It is very symbolic, that the good name of researcher and pioneer explorer Dr. Frederick Cook was returned by the Russian mountaineers. Our remote countrymen: kosaks, manufactures, sailors, who lived in the Russian America in the XIX century, were the first who saw Mt. McKinley, and a famous Russian polar explorer and navigator Ferdinand Petrovitch Wrangell was the first who marked the mountain on the geographical map. The Russians named her as "Bolshaya Gora" (Big Mountain), the Indians – as Denali, now the summit, for the first time conquered by Dr. Frederick Cook, is named after the 25-th American President – William McKinley.

Dr. Cook’s ascent route to the summit of Mt. McKinley,
repeated again one hundred years later.

Photographs made by Valery Bagov