Athabascans in their summer camps, where they fished and hunted. He reported that in twelve seasons' cruises, ranging from i,800 to 5,200 miles each summer, he traveled a total of up to 30,000 miles along the rivers. Stuck wrote and published five books, memoirs of his times in Alaska, in part to reveal the exploitation of the Alaska Native peoples that he witnessed in his work. Two of Stuck's books were edited by Maxwell Perkins, the legendary Scribner's editor who also edited Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe. Stuck had experience mountain climbing, including having ascended Mount Rainier in Washington state. Ascent of Denali Stuck recruited Harry Karstens, a respected guide, to join his expedition. Other members were Walter Harper and Robert G. Tatum, both 21, and two student volunteers from the mission school, John Fredson and Esaias George. They departed from Nenana on March 17, 1913. They reached the summit of Denali on June 7, 1913. Harper, of mixed Alaska Native and Scots descent, reached the summit first. Fredson, then 14, acted as their base camp manager, hunting caribou and Dall sheep to keep them supplied with food. The party made atmospheric measurements at the peak of the mountain for purposes of determining its elevation. At the summit, their aneroid barometer read 13.175 inches, their boiling-point thermometer read 174.9 degrees, their mercurial barometer read 13.617 inches. The alcohol minimum recording thermometer read 7 °F. These measurements, with others taken at Fort Gibbon and Valdez, were reduced by C. E. Griffin, Topographic Engineer of the United States Geological Survey, to produce an elevation for Denali of 20,384 feet. The precise figure measured by the United States Geological Survey in 2015 is 20,310 feet. They also erected a six-foot high cross at the summit. When the party returned to base camp, Stuck sent a messenger to Fairbanks to announce their success in reaching the peak of the mountain. His achievement was announced on June 21, 1913, by The New York Times and carried nationally. Stuck was scheduled to go to New York City in October for a General Convention of the Episcopal Church. This gave him another opportunity to talk about the ascent. He was awarded the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society in 1919. Later life Several of the mission churches established by the Episcopal Church in remote areas of the Interior during the early 20th century