Fall causes first death of season on McKinley
A Mount McKinley climber fell 1,100 feet to his or her death Friday afternoon while trying to recover a backpack that had started to slide downhill, the National Park Service said on Saturday.
The Park Service hasn't released the climber's identity, nationality or gender but said the individual was part of a three-person team from another country. The group wasn't using a guide and members were not roped together, said Maureen McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service in Talkeetna.
Park rangers climb-roped together and anchored in to the mountain, and encourage others to do so as well. But it's not uncommon for a team to climb that section unroped.
Denali National Park and Preserve mountaineering rangers were notified at 4:30 p.m. that a member of the climbing team had fallen from the 16,200-foot level on the mountain's West Buttress route. The team had just reached the top of an area in which lines are secured to the mountain to aid climbers and was taking a rest break, said lead mountaineering ranger Coley Gentzel, who led the incident command in Talkeetna.
Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/05/19/2471607/fall-on-mt-mckinley-claims-first.html#storylink=cpy
Summer is here in Alaska, and she is always dangerous.
