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polarwid
Jul 1, 2002, 2:00 PM
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Denali climber falls to his death McKINLEY: Others watch as soloist plunges 1,000 feet during night time descent. By Nicole Tsong Anchorage Daily News (Published: July 1, 2002) A solo climber descending Mount McKinley in Denali National Park tumbled 1,000 feet to his death early Sunday, the National Park Service said. It is the first death on 20,320-foot Mount McKinley since 1998, the National Park Service said. The Park Service is not identifying the climber until his relatives are notified. Spokesman Doug Stockdale said the climber was not an American. The man was descending near 18,000 feet on treacherous Denali Pass on the West Buttress route when he fell. Before that, he was seen by other climbers just below the summit at 20,100 feet. Denali Pass is steep and icy with a slope of up to 45 degrees, Stockdale said. "It's a challenging part because of the steep angle, and it's a traverse going across," he said. "And . . . there's ice, which complicates things." According to Park Service records, this is the sixth death on the pass since 1980. Mount McKinley is North America's tallest mountain. Climbers and a Park Service ranger at the 17,200-foot camp saw the man plummet from the slope just after midnight. A ranger was able to reach the body and confirm the climber was dead around 2:30 a.m., Stockdale said. Weather, which was clear at the time, likely wasn't a factor in the accident, he said. But variable weather since has hampered the recovery. The body had not been brought down from the mountain as of Sunday afternoon. The climber flew into the Mount McKinley base camp on June 19 from Talkeetna, but not much else is known about his climb, Stockdale said. He is reported to have climbed other mountains, possibly in Latin America. The climb to the summit can be difficult to pace, said Bruce Andrews, a guide for Alaska Mountaineering School and Alaska Denali Guiding in Talkeetna. Climbers get exhausted during the 12 to 14 hours it takes to summit from the high camp and return. That can lead to mistakes like catching a crampon on clothing or stumbling on the terrain, he said. "Generally we see people putting maximum output to get to the summit and are not leaving enough in the reserve tank for the descent," he said. "They're very tired, and these sort of things happen." And the man was climbing alone, which meant he didn't have a backup rope system with other climbers, Andrews said. "There aren't any handrails up there for a soloist," he said. The last known fatalities on Mount McKinley occurred in 1998. A climbing guide fell to his death in June that year while descending the West Buttress Ridge. A Canadian also slid to his death down the same stretch of mountain earlier that year. And hours later, a volunteer park mountaineer ranger who was trying to rescue the Canadian disappeared down the same slope. In 1997, one climber died on the mountain. In 1996, two died, in 1995 six. A record 11 climbers died on McKinley in 1992. Sunday's death is not the first fatality for Denali National Park this year, however. On June 17, three Anchorage-area brothers attempting to summit Mount Foraker fell 2,000 feet to their deaths. Mount Foraker is the second-tallest peak in the Alaska range and the third-tallest in Alaska, but it is considered a more technically challenging climb than McKinley. More than 1,200 climbers registered to climb McKinley this year. According to the Park Service, 183 climbers are still on the mountain. Reporter Nicole Tsong can be reached at ntsong@adn.com or 907 257-4450. [ This Message was edited by: polarwid on 2002-07-01 17:33 ]
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polarwid
Jul 10, 2002, 7:27 PM
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Registered: Nov 22, 2001
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Finally got the body... MOUNT MCKINLEY Rangers recover body of Canadian climber from Mount McKinley The body of a Canadian climber who died on Mount McKinley last month has been recovered, the National Park Service said. Rangers took the body of 61-year-old Michael Heck off the mountain about 8 p.m. Sunday. Heck, of Whitevale, Ontario, fell 1,000 feet to his death down an icy slope June 30 as he descended from 18,200-foot Denali Pass. Rangers said they don't know exactly what caused the fall since Heck was climbing alone. Heck is the oldest known person of the 92 who have perished climbing the continent's tallest mountain since 1932, according to agency records. Heck is the first person to die on McKinley in four years. -- The Associated Press
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climber_chick
Jul 11, 2002, 6:48 AM
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Registered: Jun 30, 2001
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did you hear about the 3 brothers up on foracher(sp?) that fell a really long way to their death? i knew the youngest and my sister knew the middle guy. it was really sad, they went to my school.
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apollodorus
Jul 11, 2002, 6:59 AM
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Registered: Feb 18, 2002
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". . . makes it a heads-up experience." -Chris McNamara, topo description for the Sea of Dreams All climbing needs to be a heads-up experience. Ice and snow are the worst, because the terrain changes by the hour, but rock can also deadly. It's awful to hear about someone out for a good climb who succumbs to the wrong confluence of factors at the wrong time. That a very experienced climber fell should be a warning to everyone to stay alert to the inherent dangers of the mountains. I just read about a fatal accident that happened about five years ago on the Zenyatta Mondatta on El Cap: a rather short fall on a solo ascent caused the rope to slip behind a sharp flake which cut it. Heads up, people.
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