On March 13th, 1913, Hudson Stuck, Walter Harper, and Harry Karstens, with a sled loaded with supplies, left by dogteam from the front of Saint Matthew's. After a year of planning and preparation, they were headed towards the highest point on the North American continent.

Stuck, 49 years old, had arrived in Fairbanks in the Fall of 1904, and in building St. Matthew's, had also estabalishsed the first Hospital and Library in the new community. He'd held the first service in the Church, October 16th, 1904. Using St. Matthew's in Fairbanks and the Mission in Ft. Yukon as a base, he traveled widely throughout the Interior and Arctic as the first Episcopal Archdeacon of the Yukon. Harper, 20 years old and Stuck's traveling companion,