Dr. Frederick Cook is the Sullivan County native who explored both ends of the earth, as well as Greenland and Alaska. Doubters have challenged his claims for years, while the Cook Society has resolutely defended his honor. Please join us in honoring his achievements.
Vern Tejas
Vern Tejas is known for Mt. Denali’s first solo winter ascent, the first solo of Mt. Vinson (Antarctica’s highest), first winter ascent of Mt. Logan (Canada’s highest) and as lead guide for Col. Norman Vaughan’s first ascent of Mt. Vaughan in remote Antarctica.
On Thursday, March 13th, at 1pm, Vern Tejas will present a talk about his extraordinary mountaineering career. Vern currently holds the world record for the amount of time taken to summit all seven summits consecutively. He is the first person to solo summit several of the world’s tallest peaks. And in 2002, Sports Illustrated named Tejas as one of the top fifty Alaskan athletes of the twentieth century.
Last year one of the Frederick Cook Society volunteers opened an old cabinet in the back of the Cook Gallery and discovered an envelope containing two small objects wrapped in bubble wrap. The objects were rocks taken from the summit of Mount Denali. A note in the envelope explained that Vern Tejas rappelled 100 feet down the mountain to collect these rocks, to help prove that Frederick Cook’s description of the summit as granite, was correct.
Dr. Frederick Cook is the Sullivan County native who explored both ends of the earth, as well as Greenland and Alaska. Doubters have challenged his claims for years, while the Cook Society, located in Hurleyville, New York, has quietly and resolutely defended his honor. Cook Society Executive Director Carol Smith had this to say about the situation.. “Cook’s story, his persecution and subsequent redemption presents one of the most profound examples of how the media can manipulate public perception. It also speaks to the ways in which jealousy can corrupt power and foster hatred. Frederick Cook was loved and admired by nearly everyone he met, but exploration at the turn of the century involved regional and national pride, and Cook’s rare talent and unprecedented success earned him the wrath of some very powerful people”.
When asked about his passion for climbing Vern’s response was fascinating.
“I like being active in the physical world and doing something that is challenging and something that also might cross new barriers or new horizons, but it is metaphorical when you look into it deeply; it’s really yourself that you are exploring, you really are discovering your own limits and finding your own uncharted waters. It plays back and forth between the real world and your internal world and for me it’s been a trip of discovery”.