Less than half of the climbers who attempted to summit North America's tallest peak this year were successful, Denali National Park and Preserve officials said.

This season, 1,218 mountaineers attempted various routes on Mount McKinley, with 573 reaching the 20,320-foot summit. Five climbers died.

FROM THE BOOKSHELF

• The book: The Shameless Diary of an Explorer: A Story of Failure on Mt. McKinley by Robert Dunn with introduction by Edward Hoagland.

• Cost: $14.95 (Modern Library).

• Why it's worth a read: For its opening paragraph: "This is a story of a failure. I think that success would have made it no more worth telling. It is about an exploring party, the sort that so often fails."

• The best part? Written as a diary, this book chronicles explorer Frederick Cook's expedition attempting a first ascent of McKinley in 1903. Aspiring journalist Robert Dunn was on that expedition, and this is his diary. It is blunt and honest and riveting in its details.

• Who should read it: Anyone who is hungry for an unsanitized account of a difficult climb.

TUBE TOP

• The dilemma: You like the on-the-go ease of drinking from a tube but hate to deal with filling-and, especially, cleaning and drying-a hydration bladder.

• The fix: The Smart-Tube hydration system from Blue Desert.

• Why it works: The system, which includes a tube and mouthpiece, eliminates the bladder component thanks to three sizes of caps that fit standard and wide-mouth bottles. You can also sip Gatorade or juice without worrying about the lingering taste that seems to plague typical bladders.

• Bottom line: No more creatively stretching hydration bladders on your dish rack for days of drying.

• Get it: $20; axisoutdoor.com

Cindy Hirschfeld