TO THE TOP OF THE CONTINENT: DISCOVERY, EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE IN SUB-ARCTIC ALASKA. THE FIRST ASCENT OF MOUNT MCKINLEY, 1903-1906. New York, 1908, 1st edition. 321 pp, 47 plates. TEG. One of the most controversial books in the literature of mountaineering. Cook falsified his claims to have made the first ascent of McKinley. Slight Edge wear, cover bright and clean, Very Good.
Contains the official account of Cook's 1903 expedition that made the highest ascent up to that time and completed the first circumnavigation of the mountain. That feat was not repeated until 1978 by Galen Rowell, and the long circumnavigation was not duplicated until 1995. The next section contains Cook's 1906 expedition where he probed the southern approaches during the summer. In September 1906, he made the first ascent of the Ruth Glacier, and with Ed Barrill, claimed to have reached the summit (South Peak). Three years later, during Robert Peary's dispute with Cook over the discovery of the North Pole, Barrill changed his story and signed an affidavit that he and Cook did not make the ascent in 1906. As a result, Cook's ascent was discredited for the next ninety years.
