Hudson Stuck had always hoped to be the first man ever to scale Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America.  His epic ascent of that mountain at the age of fifty, through storms and over glaciers in an ordeal that lasted eleven weeks, is one of the most gripping adventures in a life full of adventure.

As a young man, Stuck left his native England and landed in Texas, penniless, sick with tuberculosis, a stranger in a foreign land. Undaunted, he became a cowboy, a schoolteacher, a divinity student, an Episcopal priest and, in time, Dean of St. Matthew's Cathedral in Dallas. Then at the age of forty, he undertook a mission few men would have dared to consider. He received permission to become a missionary in the untamed wilderness of Alaska.

Although a frail and reticent man, he regularly traveled thousands of lonely miles by dog sled, often enduring blizzards and cold of 70 degrees below zero, to bring the word of God to the Indians and Eskimos. He established schools and hospitals for them and opposed all the forces that exploited his adopted people, from greedy gold miners to the giant fishing industries that depleted the streams.

When time allowed he climbed mountains, and the burning desire of his life was to conquer Mount McKinley. That he lived to see his dream come true is a tribute to a man whose indomitable spirit and extraordinary courage outweighed human frailty.

From the dust jacket