Mount Foraker

Mount Foraker, or Sultana as it is known by the Athabascans, stands proudly as Denali's wife. At 17,400 feet it is the sixth highest mountain in North America. Sultana was renamed in honor of Ohio senator Joseph Foraker in 1899 by Joseph Herron. Like Denali, Mount Foraker has a north and south summit at 17,400 ft. (5304m) and 16,810 ft. (5124m) respectively.

The first ascent occured in August of 1934 by Charles S. Houston, Dr. T. Graham Brown, and Chychele Waterston via the Northwest Ridge. Houston developed an interest in Foraker in the early 1930s and by the winter of 1933 was aggressively planning for his 1934 ascent. His team established a series of seven camps and summited on the 17th of August.

In the summer of 1977, George Lowe and Michael Kennedy made the first ascent of Foraker's Infinite Spur - one of the great alpine test pieces that the Alaska Range offers. And a route that remained unrepeated until Nelson's second ascent in 1988 with the late Mark Bebie. The third ascent was made in July of 2000 by Barry Blanchard and Carl Tobin. The pair shaved four days off of the original ascent. The route involves 9,000 feet of difficult climbing to Foraker's lofty 17,000 foot summit. In 2001, while continuing to make single push rapid ascents, Steve House and Rolando Garibotti completed the Infinite Spur in a blistering 25 hours. They bettered Blanchard's efforts by six days.

In mid May of 2006 Sue Nott and Karen McNeill disappeared while attempting the Infinite Spur. During search and rescue efforts footprints were found less than 1000 feet below the summit but ended abruptly. On the 11th of June search efforts were suspended.

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