At least 14 climbers have died in falls on the West Buttress Route since 1980.
A climber has died in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve after park rangers discovered his body more than three miles above sea level, officials said.
According to a press release from the National Park Service, the incident began Monday when rangers were contacted by a concerned family who hadn’t heard from the climber in several days.
“During his solo ascent of Denali, the climber was in regular contact with his family via an InReach communications device,” officials said.
Due to concerns from families, park officials were immediately dispatched to the upper range of the West Buttress Route, and mountain rangers quickly removed the climber’s empty tent at the top of the 16,200-foot ridge, park officials said. It is said that they were able to discover it.
“Through interviews, rangers also located the climbers’ last known sighting. Another climbing team saw them cross from the plateau at an elevation of 17,200 feet to Denali Pass at 18,200 feet on Wednesday, May 15, according to the National Park Service. “Rangers at the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station were able to collect satellite location data from the climbers’ InReach accounts and identified a possible location at 17,000 feet above Denali. The InReach data indicated that the device’s location had not changed since Thursday, May 16, suggesting the fall from over Denali Pass occurred on that day.”
National Park Service mountaineering patrols patrolling the 17,200-foot camp were able to use spotting scopes to locate the likely climber’s fall as the weather began to improve at the summit Monday morning. officials said.
“The team went to the scene and confirmed the climber was dead. Ranger patrols then secured the climber in position and returned to the high altitude camp,” officials said. “Recovery efforts will be attempted as weather conditions permit. The identity of the crashed climber will be made public once his family has been notified.”
Since 1980, at least 14 climbers have died in falls along the dangerous West Buttress route section, including this fatality.
“Denali’s West Buttress Route currently has 352 climbers, the majority of whom are fairly low on the mountain early in the climbing season,” according to park officials, which typically begins in early May. It is expected to end in early July. .
