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Japanese Climber Dies In Fall Into Crevasse In Denali National Park

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By Compiled From N... - May 18th, 2022
Mount Hunter in Denali National Park and Preserve/Russ Fowler via wikipedia

Mount Hunter in Denali National Park and Preserve/Russ Fowler via wikipedia, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

A Japanese climber is believed to have become the second climber to die this climbing season in Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska when he fell through an ice bridge into a crevasse on Mount Hunter.

Park staff said the 43-year-old unidentified climber, from Kanagawa, Japan, was not roped up with his teammates when the ice bridge collapsed near their base camp at roughly 8,000 feet on the southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier on Mount Hunter, a relatively low (14,573 feet) but technically challenging mountain about eight miles south of Denali.

The accident occurred at the base of Mount Hunter's North Buttress late Tuesday night, according to a park release.

A teammate of the fallen climber sought help from the NPS mountaineering rangers at the Kahiltna Basecamp at approximately 11:30 p.m. local time Tuesday. Two NPS patrol members skied back to the accident site with the reporting teammate. One ranger rappelled into the crevasse as deep as possible, confirming that the ice bridge collapse had filled the narrow crevasse with a large volume of snow and ice approximately 80 feet below the glacier surface. The ranger was unable to descend further.

The climber is presumed dead based on the volume of ice, the distance of the fall, and the duration of the burial. The feasibility of a body recovery will be investigated in the days ahead. 

In follow up to the mountaineering fatality at 17,000-feet on Denali at the beginning of May, the body of Austrian solo climber Matthias Rimml was recovered via a long-line helicopter operation on Tuesday. 

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