More photos and story

The following photos start with the ground transports to get supplies as far up the mountain as they could. There are also photos of the men snowshoeing up the mountain.
Uncle Mike told me that they had to be tied together so if they fell into a crevasse they could be pulled out.
Aunt Lois remembered that Mike saved another man's feet from frostbite by putting his cold feet on Mike's stomach. Having grown up in Norway Mike was uniquely suited for this journey, having spend his childhood and young adult years in the remote north. 
The photos go on to show the plane wreckage, plane supply drops and the journey back.
 Mike told us that it took weeks to get up the mountain but on the journey back Mike and one other man were allow to ski back so they got back down the mountain in half the time (or less) than it took all the other men. They spend their extra days enjoying the lodge at the base of Mt. McKinley while they waited for the rest of the men to get back.

Map of crash site

Wreckage of the plane



Intro to Mikal's photo book

The following picture is the first three photos in Uncle Mikal's album. I typed out what I could read of the writing on the pictures. It was done in calligraphy pen on the top of the photos.

The map is not very clear so I'm including one I found on a website:

 

Sorry it's rotated, it's right in my photos but rotated when I downloaded it.

 

I remember Uncle Mikal...

I remember Uncle Mikal telling me about his rescue expedition on Mt. McKinley. According to Mike (Uncle Mikal mostly went by "Mike") the army knew that they would lose a percentage of the men that were sent up the mountain but they decide to mount a rescue anyway.
Mike remembers the reason the rescue was attempted was because there was a senator's son on the plane that crashed. I haven't found any evidence of this in my research of the crash, perhaps it was just some rumor that went around the army at the time.
Mikal attributes the survival of all the men that went on that expedition, to the wisdom of the Chief ranger (Mt. McKinley National Park Ranger) that went with them and taught them how to keep from getting frost bite etc. I found a website that listed the name of this ranger as Grant Pearson.
I was thrilled to find some other sites on the web about the rescue and will include links to them on this blog.
Uncle Mikal passed away a number of years ago and I think it's important that we preserve the memory of this little bit of family history.
This blog is mainly going to be pictures from the photo album that Mikal was giving after the expedition.


 www.cactusweb.net/mckinley/story.html this link tells the story of the rescue quite well.

Uncle Mikal is in the back row right in front of the left side of the door....I'd recognize those ears anywhere!!!(the back row is a bit confusing because it includes men that are slightly in front of others.)