A pair of climbers trying to scale Mount Johnson in Alaska’s Denali National Park suffered a 1,000-foot fall Thursday, killing one and injuring the other.
The two were using a rope and attempting the 5,000-foot Escalator route up the southeastern face of the mountain, which is 8,400 feet high in total.
Another party of mountain climbers witnessed the fall and alerted authorities at 10:45 p.m., Denali National Park said in a release. The witness party rushed to help the duo and confirmed that one died. In addition, the witnesses built a snow cave and helped treat the surviving climber’s injuries.
At 7 a.m. Friday, a park ranger arrived and helped airlift the injured climber out of the park via helicopter. The survivor, who officials said suffered “serious traumatic injuries,” was transferred to an air ambulance at Talkeetna Airport for further care.
The body of the deceased couldn’t be recovered due to bad weather and cloud cover. Rangers will return to retrieve the corpse when conditions allow, park officials said.
They didn’t name the fallen climbers.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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