3 climbers dead, 1 rescued after fall while climbing America’s tallest peak

One climber was rescued from the 17,200-foot basin on Alaska’s Mount McKinley, North America’s tallest peak, and the search for three remaining climbers who also fell has become a recovery effort, the National Park Service said Friday.

Search and rescue teams from the Denali National Park and Preserve rescued the climber at about 4 p.m. local time Thursday, the park service said. The fall occurred near Denali Pass, at about 18,200 feet.

“Due to terrain and conditions at the site, a high-altitude helicopter was unable to land and instead conducted the evacuation using a long-line extraction,” the park service said in a news release. “The climber was transported to the Kahiltna Base Camp and then transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance for transport to a hospital. NPS does not have additional information about the status of the survivor.”

The Latvian Mountaineering Association on Friday announced the “tragic accident in a Latvian mountaineering expedition while climbing the highest peak in North America,” saying “three of our friends, talented and experienced climbers, have lost their lives on the icy slopes of this mountain.”

“This is an unspeakably painful, irreparable loss for the entire family of Latvian mountain climbers,” the association said in a statement.

The park service said it doesn’t release information on fatality victims until 72 hours after notification of next of kin.

LAS said the injured climber was “evacuated in critical condition and transferred to the care of US medical personnel.” 

The fall was reported to Denali National Park and Preserve rangers overnight, and rangers were seeking a weather window to allow them to reach the area by helicopter, a previous statement from the park service said. The four climbers were part of a seven-person team.

The three others climbing attended to those who fell, and then returned to an area known as high camp at around 17,000 feet, the park service had said. McKinley, also known as Denali, stands at about 20,310 feet.

In its statement Friday, LAS said the three other expedition members “remained at camp after the accident to begin their safe descent with the help of rescuers.”

Over the years, many climbing injuries and deaths have occurred on the traverse between the high camp and Denali Pass, mainly resulting from unprotected falls, according to the park. Last June, a climber died after falling 3,000 feet while ascending the West Buttress climbing route on the mountain.

Park rangers and mountain guides install and maintain snow pickets — which are used to help build anchors for extra protection on areas like steep slopes — between the high camp and Denali Pass, the park says. Climbers are urged to have their own pickets in case the protection placed by rangers and guides is missing.

Weather conditions didn’t improve the way rescuers had hoped. Scott Carr, a park service spokesperson, said late Thursday that conditions throughout the day had been variable, with low cloud ceilings and limited visibility.

A typical climbing season for Mount McKinley begins in late April and continues into mid-July, according to the park. There were 516 climbers on the mountain as of Thursday, Carr said by email.

In a separate incident Wednesday, two climbers were evacuated from the mountain by helicopter around 11 p.m., but the park service said it did not have additional information to share.

The sprawling national park and the mountain itself are some of southern Alaska’s main tourist draws, which together attract around 600,000 visitors every year. Many who travel to the national park never actually see Mount McKinley, though, because clouds in the region can be so thick that they completely obscure the mountain despite its size.