One person died and another was seriously injured after a team of two climbers fell 304 meters while climbing a mountain in Alaska's Denali National Park on Thursday (25).
The two rope climbers were ascending the “escalator” route on Mount Johnson, a “steep, technical alpine climb on the southeast face of the peak” involving a “mixture of steep rock, ice and snow,” according to a statement from the park.
Another group of climbers on the same route saw the fall and alerted the Alaska Regional Communications Center around 10:45 p.m., the site said.
They then descended to the victims and confirmed that one of the climbers had died in the fall. The statement said the second climber suffered “serious traumatic injuries.”
“Rescuers dug a cave in the snow and tended to the surviving climber’s injuries throughout the night,” the statement said.
The next morning, the pilot of Denali's high-altitude rescue helicopter and two climbers responded to the incident. A ranger descended to the group of climbers, and then they transferred the injured patient to a flat glacier and placed him in the helicopter.
They were flown to Talkeetna, Alaska, where the surviving climber was transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance at Talkeetna State Airport for treatment, according to the park.
The helicopter and rangers returned to the crash site later in the morning, hoping to recover the dead climber's body, but had to turn back due to deteriorating weather, they wrote in the statement.
“NPS rangers will return to the site when weather conditions permit” and the identity of the dead hiker will not be released until the family is notified, the park said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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