Harry Karstens First Ascent Denali Ice Axe, ca. 1913
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GUEST:
This is my great-grandfather's climbing axe from the first expedition up Denali. My great-grandfather is Harry Karstens. He climbed in 1913. He was working on a ranch in Billings, Montana, when a guy came into town talking about gold. Came to the gold rush in 1897, very young, around 18, and Harry arrives in Dyea. He unloads the boat. (chuckles): He doesn't have anything with him, so he starts exchanging labor for goods. Worked an entire day for a can of peas. Builds a boat at Lindeman. He does all the classic adventures. He lives two cabins away from Jack London for his second winter. An opening makes itself available for running the mail by dog sled.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
Never run a dog sled before. Has to teach himself how to, how to do all these things. He learned from the First Nations peoples how to do all the skills that were appropriate to survive in the Alaska winter.
APPRAISER:
Hm.
GUEST:
And he builds up a reputation. He shouldn't have survived. He just kept surviving. And that grabbed the attention of the Archdeacon Hudson Stuck...
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
...who wanted to climb that mountain over there.
APPRAISER:
Harry was the leader of the expedition, right?
GUEST:
He was the climbing leader.
APPRAISER:
Climbing leader, okay.
GUEST:
They were partners, equal partners.
APPRAISER:
Okay, but there were two others, right?
GUEST:
Yes, Robert Tatum and Walter Harper, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And Walter Harper was an Alaska Native.
GUEST:
He was.
APPRAISER:
Did they all have ice axe?
GUEST:
They did-- Stuck went down to a local blacksmith and he asked them to make him something. Came back, found four of these things cut out of old wood-chopping axes. Robert Tatum lost his in McKinley River... Yeah. ...when he fell backwards with a heavy pack. Walter picked him up and carried him out. Harper's and Stuck's disappeared. This is the only one we know that exists today.
APPRAISER:
This is an amazing object. In 1913, the name of the mountain was Mount McKinley at the time.
GUEST:
Yes-- some of the guys I climbed with, we actually spoke at CoGNA, the naming authority that deals with names, uh, in this country.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And we got the ball rolling. The local community did their part, and the Athabascan Koyukon name has finally been returned to us. Uh, we, Denali is one of many, many Native names.
APPRAISER:
It's the tallest mountain in North America.
GUEST:
It is the tallest mountain in North America. It was just remeasured at 20,310 feet.
APPRAISER:
Mountaineering is a wonderful niche category of highly specialized collectors...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAIASER: ...that love this stuff. The enthusiast. The problem is, is that we don't see a lot of materials.
GUEST:
That's right.
APPRAISER:
Stays in the family.
GUEST:
Yes, it does.
APPRAISER:
As it has with yours. (both laugh)
GUEST:
You earned these things.
APPRAISER:
You earned it the hard way.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Also, it trades privately, if it does trade.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So we don't see a lot that comes onto, uh, an auction market of things. There was only four that ascended the mountain. Three of them are gone, so this is the only one.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And it's a milestone event. So it's the first climb that's made it all the way to the summit.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Pretty cool.
GUEST:
It is.
APPRAISER:
Yes. Provenance is key. And it's been in your family.
GUEST:
It has been in a trunk in a barn. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
So, at retail, for insurance purposes...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...$20,000.
GUEST:
(groans, laughs) Oh, no, that's a little bit too much.
APPRAISER:
(laughing) You sure?
GUEST:
Now I got to lock it up.
(both laugh)
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