In June 1913, Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens led the first expedition to the summit.<ref>Woodside, Chris, "[http://chriswoodside.com/who-led-first-ascent-denali Who led the first ascent of Denali?]"</ref> In his account of the expedition, published in 1918, Stuck argued that the name of the mountain should be changed to "Denali," which he claimed was the traditional Indian name of the mountain.<ref>Stuck, Hudson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9c55AAAAMAAJ&dq= The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley): A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America].'' (1918)</ref>
There are seven Alaskan languages with native names for the mountain. None of them use a name that corresponds to "Denali" exactly. The closest is Koyukon. In this language, the mountain is called ''Diinaalii'' ("the tall one") and pronounced <tt>dee·nah·lee</tt>. As of 2007, about 300 people could speak Koyukon.<ref>Krauss, Michael E. 2007. "Native languages of Alaska", In: ''The Vanishing Voices of the Pacific Rim'', ed. by Osahito Miyaoko, Osamu Sakiyama, and Michael E. Krauss. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Table 21.1, page 408))</ref>
In 1972, Sylvain Saudan skied down the mountain's sheer southwest face, earning the title "skier of the impossible."