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Denali and surrounding mountains of the Alaska Range are visible from a jet on June 18, 2024. (Marc Lester \/ ADN) <\/p>\nDenali and surrounding mountains of the Alaska Range are visible from a jet on June 18, 2024. (Marc Lester \/ ADN) <\/p>\n
Three climbers on Denali who fell near a treacherous pass have died, a Latvian mountaineering group said Friday.<\/p>\n
The three were members of a Latvian mountaineering expedition, the group said. They were traversing a route on North America\u2019s tallest peak that is known for its exposed sections where many injuries and deaths have occurred when they fell Wednesday, the National Park Service said.<\/p>\n
Their bodies have not yet been recovered, the park service said.<\/p>\n
A fourth climber who fell was evacuated from the mountain and in critical condition, Latvian Mountaineering Association said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Denali National Park and Preserve rangers had to wait for the weather to clear before attempting to reach the climbers, who were in a group of seven on the mountain.<\/p>\n
The fall happened near Denali Pass, which is about 18,200 feet above sea level. Denali itself stands at about 20,310 feet, part of the Alaska Range.<\/p>\n
Three others in the climbing group tended to those who fell before returning to camp, the park service has said.<\/p>\n
The group was on the West Buttress route, the most popular path to the summit. It\u2019s known for its crevasses, steep ice and exposed ridges.<\/p>\n
More than 130 people have died on the mountain in the history of the park.<\/p>\n
Over the years, many\u00a0climbing injuries and deaths\u00a0have occurred on the traverse between Denali Pass and an area known as high camp at around 17,000 feet, mainly resulting from unprotected falls, according to the park. Most of the deaths along the pass have happened while climbers are descending.<\/p>\n
Park rangers and mountain guides install and maintain snow pickets \u2014 which are used to help build anchors for extra protection on areas like steep slopes \u2014 between the high camp and Denali Pass.<\/p>\n
Only about 1,000 to 1,200 climbers attempt to reach the top of Denali each year, mostly during May and June. The trip usually takes about 17 days, and less than half made it to the summit last year, according to park statistics.<\/p>\n
Last year there were two fatalities \u2014 both skiers \u2014 on the mountain while rangers evacuated 16 people, park statistics showed.<\/p>\n
There were 516 climbers on the mountain as of Thursday, said Scott Carr, a park service spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Two other climbers who were not with the group that fell were evacuated from the mountain by helicopter Wednesday, according to the park service.<\/p>\n
Bohrer reported from Juneau and Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denali and surrounding mountains of the Alaska Range are visible from a jet on June 18, 2024. (Marc…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[294038,23,294039,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-674136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-alaska-range","tag-america","tag-denali","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}