The 1967 Denali Disaster: 7 Climbers Trapped Above 19,000 Feet | Disaster Strikes E 260

In July 1967, only 213 people had ever stood on the summit of Denali. When an inexperienced climbing team was denied a permit, the National Park Service made an unusual decision: merge them with a stronger team of strangers and send all twelve climbers up the mountain together. At first, everything goes according to plan. But as two powerful weather systems begin converging over Alaska, a series of decisions—some debated to this day—leave climbers high on North America's tallest peak just as one of the most violent mountain storms ever recorded arrives.Were the climbers warned? Why did they continue toward the summit after spending a night exposed above 19,000 feet? And could anyone have survived what happened next?In this Disaster Strikes episode, we examine the 1967 Denali Disaster, the controversy that followed, and the lessons that forever changed mountaineering on North America's highest mountain.

00:00 Disaster Strikes Intro

00:48 Lost Above 19,000 Feet

02:12 A Team That Was Never Supposed to Exist

05:02 The Long Approach to Denali

08:04 A Storm Begins to Form

10:05 Two Summit Teams

12:07 A Dangerous Decision

14:35 The Last Radio Call

17:08 Waiting Out the Storm

20:18 The Search Begins

22:05 What Really Happened?