A most hostile mountain

Re- creating the Duke of Abruzzi`s historic expedition on Alaska`s Mount St.
Elias. In 1897 an Italian nobleman–Luigi of Savoy, the duke of Abruzzi–set
out to climb North America`s second-highest peak, the 18,008-foot Mount St.
Elias (known to the native Tlingit people of Alaska as Yasetaca). A century
later, the author of A Most Hostile Mountain attempts to recreate this same
land-sea journey by sailing north out of Seattle and into the Gulf of Alaska.
While Abruzzi traveled with an army`s worth of supplies and numerous porters
to shoulder creature comforts fit for a duke, Jonathan Waterman chooses the
relative quiet of a single companion in his attempt to retrace the duke`s
historic expedition.