The expedition's application to climb the mountain was met with skepticism from the National Park Service at Mount McKinley National Park due to the climbers' inexperience in high altitude. While all members of the team were familiar with basic mountaineering practices, none had ascended a peak higher than , while Denali's summit is at . As such, park rangers recommended that the Wilcox Expedition merge with a more experienced climbing group from Colorado led by Howard Snyder, who intended to climb the mountain at the same time. Snyder's group initially consisted of four men: Snyder (age 22), Jerry Lewis (age 31), Steve Lewis, and Paul Schlichter (age 22). The four intended to climb by themselves, but shortly before leaving for Alaska, Steve Lewis was injured in a traffic accident and was unable to climb. With his team now below the Park Service's mandated four-person minimum, Snyder agreed to join Wilcox's expedition. It was now a 12-member team attempting to climb the mountain. The Park Service approved the expedition's application to climb, with caveats that team members purchase and carry radios with them on the climb, that the experienced climbers of the Colorado group had to stay with the less experienced climbers of Wilcox's group, and that less experienced climbers had to take training courses to prepare for the high elevation and rugged terrain they would be experiencing.
