1 climber rescued, 1 dead after days stranded near Denali summit

One of two climbers stranded since Tuesday near the summit of Denali was rescued alive by a helicopter crew Friday morning. The other died in a snow cave while waiting for help, according to park officials.

The rescue at 19,600 feet took place around 7 a.m., according to a statement from Denali National Park and Preserve staff. Clouds and high winds that had blocked flights near the mountain's summit eased Thursday evening, allowing the park's high-altitude helicopter to drop a duffel bag filled with supplies near the snow cave in in which the hypothermic mountaineers had taken refuge.

“The pilot observed a climber waving at him during the release, but the winds were still too strong to safely carry out a short distance extraction of the basket,” park officials said in the release.

Friday morning, the helicopter returned to the scene with a pilot and a park ranger.

“The surviving climber climbed into the basket and was airlifted to Kahiltna Base Camp at 7,200 feet and then evacuated to Talkeetna State Airport to be transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance” , park officials said.

Park spokesman Paul Ollig said no communication had been received from climbers since Wednesday evening. Rescuers learned of the other climber's fate from the surviving man after he was evacuated from the mountain, and a medevac flight later took him to Anchorage.

“He said his partner died about two days before he was rescued,” Ollig said.

Friday's rescue was the culmination of a days-long effort by air and ground searchers to reach the two climbers. They were part of a trio from Malaysia who reached the summit of Denali early Tuesday. But they then used an inReach satellite communications device to ask for help at the summit, saying they were exhausted, hypothermic and could not descend.

One of the climbers managed to reach the high camp later Tuesday and was evacuated from the mountain in serious condition, but the other two took shelter in a cave to wait for help. On Wednesday evening, they reported that their inReach was dying.

“We got sort of a wave of five very brief messages from climbers at that time that their inReach device had 1% battery life,” Ollig said.

The deceased climber was not immediately identified Friday morning, Ollig said, as park staff worked with the Malaysian consulate to notify his family. Park rangers plan to recover his body, according to Ollig, but no immediate timeline has been set for doing so.