Mt. McKinley is once again Denali

This thread had obviously turned more political as it progressed. It's not really an RVing/Camping topic anyway; time to close it.

Congress passes an act and signs it into law. Folks who think the Constitution is a "living document" have their stooge sign an "executive order" reversing the law without real authority, and that makes it all right. Ain't America great? :)

Well, contrary to many views expressed herein, not all Alaskans called the mountain Denali. I was born and raised in Alaska and lived there for the better part of 50 years until the recent sojourn to Ewe-stun.

Most folks, including the people that climbed it that I knew, called it Mt. McKinley or just McKinley. I recognize that the AK Legislature resolved that it should be Denali and there's certainly no reason not to call it that. However, the chorus that "this is what all the Alaskans call it anyway" is simply incorrect.

I would guess that most Alaskans (and despite what some in the media would like folks to think, the numbers simply dictate that "most" Alaskans live in cities or towns with ambition such as Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau) called the Mountain and the Park "McKinley" until probably the early 90's when it became much more politically correct to challenge anything to do with the Alaska of the '60's - '80's.

You know what they say,"Follow the money!"

Doesn't GMC have a trim package called Denali?

Sales must be softening!

We all know who the biggest supporter of GM is.

Thanks for the input and education....I had a friend of mine climb the summit as he stated he had to start using oxygen at the 17,000 ft. level but also stated he had to wait it out 5 days for any weather break as they almost aborted from reaching the summit.

" For the one that took their picture standing on the summit, very impressive and where is your oxygen mask ? "

Bottled oxygen is rarely used by any mountaineers outside the highest peaks in the Himalaya's (other than rescue or medical emergencies). Even on Everest where almost everyone uses supplemental oxygen, they only start using it above camp 3, approx. 24,000 ft. I've climbed a dozen peaks over 20,000 ft and never used bottled oxygen. Unless you're staying up there over 20,000 for an extended duration its not needed. You do need to be very careful to acclimatize your body to the altitude, by going up very slow and using the yo yo technique of carrying a load up to a higher camp then returning to the lower camp to sleep before moving back up.
On Denali for example, we only had 4 camps (base camp where the plane lands on the glacier, and 3 high camps) but yet it took us 18 days to reach the summit due to this back & forth, waiting for all team members to acclimatize and waiting for the right weather conditions.

jrp wrote:
Almost everyone but Ohioans has been calling it Denali for 30 yrs. In 1982 on my 3rd attempt, I finally stood on its summit. Once you've been there, Denali "the great one" is the appropriate name.

Very, very cool! :)

A couple years ago or so on the last US congressional hearing attempt to officially change the mountain's official name for the multiple time, failed once again....

A few days after the US congressional hearing, the state of Alaska lawmakers on their next session not only voted unanimously to keep the official name of the mountain recognized as simply "Denali" , but this time placed a clause to never recognize the Mount McKinley name ever again....

Which meant in the eyes of the state of Alaska, the official name has always been "Denali" since 1975 when the state requested the federal government to officially change the name to Denali but was denied, but in the eyes of the US Gov't the official name has always been "Mount McKinley" since 1917 when they officially named the mountain.

However as roughly 35 years ago in 1980, the US National Park Service officially changed the park's name from Mt. McKinley Nat'l Park to Denali Nat'l Park....

What I do not understand (or did not know) is now all of a sudden after all these past congressional hearings about changing the official name had failed by US lawmakers, now the Department of Interior secretary all of a sudden has the power to officially change the name of the mountain on an order (which they termed it the Dep't of Interior and the White House to give the US president additional credit), and why did it take this long and wasted past sessions to finally change the name officially....

When I was in grade school, all the textbooks taught the name as Mt. McKinley...until I arrived in Alaska in 1982 almost every Alaskan has called the mountain "Denali", which is the athabaskan language meaning the great one that has cultural meaning.

For the one that took their picture standing on the summit, very impressive and where is your oxygen mask ?

jrp wrote:
Almost everyone but Ohioans has been calling it Denali for 30 yrs. In 1982 on my 3rd attempt, I finally stood on its summit. Once you've been there, Denali "the great one" is the appropriate name.

You stood up there! WOW ! Here's a view of the peak, a zoomed view from Eielson Visitor Center. I looked for your foot prints... :B

EEWally wrote:
Some say Mt. Everest, some say just Everest.
Some say Mt. Rainier, some say just Rainier.
Some say Mt. Denali, some say just Denali although the latter is more romantic.

Never in my 25 years here have I heard anybody except a tourist say "Mt. Denali". People can call it whatever they want, but in the North it is, and always has been, "Denali".