Mount McKinley has a larger bulk and rise than Mount Everest, although the summit of Everest is higher at 29,029 feet (8,848 m). Everest's base sits on the Tibetan Plateau at about 17,000 feet (5,200 m), giving it a real vertical rise of a little more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). The base of Mount McKinley is roughly at 2,000-foot (610 m) elevation, giving it an actual rise of 18,000 feet (5,500 m).

The mountain is also characterized by extremely cold weather. Temperatures as low as −75.5 °F (−60 °C) and windchills as low as −118.1 °F (−83 °C) have been recorded by an automated weather station located at 18,700 feet (5,700 m). According to the National Park Service, in 1932 the Liek-Lindley expedition recovered a self-recording minimum thermometer left near Browne's Tower, at about 15,000 feet (4,600 m), on Mount McKinley by the Stuck-Karstens party in 1913. The spirit thermometer was calibrated down to 95 degrees below zero and the lowest recorded temperature was below that point. Harry J. Liek took the thermometer back to Washington, D.C. where it was tested by the United States Weather Bureau and found to be accurate. The lowest temperature that it had recorded was found to be approximately −100 °F (−73.3 °C) degrees.

There is also a higher risk of altitude illness for climbers than its altitude would otherwise suggest, due to its high latitude.This is because barometric pressure decreases with increases in latitude. That is, at the equator, a mountain as high as Mount McKinley would have 47% as much oxygen available on its summit as compared to sea level, but because of McKinley's latitude, the pressure on its summit is even lower at 42%.