'Antiques Roadshow' guest says it is a 'little too much' after being told the value of his climbing axe

Watches, vases, and even baseball cards or toy cars have been seen getting high valuations on “Antiques Roadshow,” but a guest walking in with a climbing axe was completely unexpected. The item may be unusual for a show like that, but it still holds immense value since there is a small but passionate community of people who collect tools used for mountaineering. But this wasn’t just any regular climbing axe, since it belonged to the legendary Harry Karstens, who was leading the climbers that reached Denali, North America’s highest peak, in 1913.

The axe was brought to the show by a man who claimed to be Karsten’s great-grandson. The legendary climber went on the expedition with Hudson Stuck, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum. They all had their climbing axes, but they all lost them as they made their way to the top. This was the only one still available from that expedition. That makes it quite a valuable item when it comes to mountaineering.

At the time of the climbing, the name of the mountain was Mt. McKinley, according to antique expert Meredith Meuwly. “Mountaineering is a wonderful niche category of highly specialized collectors that love this stuff. The Enthusiast. The problem is that we don’t see a lot of materials,” the expert said. The guest then revealed that these items were earned and not usually traded. Even if they were, it was all done privately.

“There were only four that ascended the mountain. Three of them are gone, so this is the only one. And it’s a milestone event. So it’s the first climb that made it all the way to the summit. Pretty cool,” the expert added. The guest then revealed that while the axe held a ton of historical significance, it had also been kept casually at home since it had been in a trunk and in a barn for an extended period of time.

Finally, it was time to place a valuation on the item. “So, at retail, for insurance purposes, $20,000,” Meuwly said. It is important to remember that climbing axes are sold for a very small percentage of that money, so this came as a bit of a shock to the guest. “Oh no, that’s a little bit too much,” he said as he burst into laughter, before adding, “Now I got to lock it up.”

It might not have been as renowned as the first few summits of Mt. Everest, but climbing Denali was no small feat, either. The mountain is more than 20,000 feet high, and the climbers at the time had to deal with adversities such as an earthquake on slippery, ice-covered slopes. Their bodies weren’t the only things affected by the climb; their relationships too took a sout turn.

Karsten and Hudson Stuck might have been friends before the climb, but as per an article in ICT, that relationship was strained during the climb, and the two never spoke to each other ever again.