A Denali climber was rescued yesterday (Mon, June 1) after spending 14 hours wedged deep in a crevasse. The National Park Service spokeswoman Maureen Gualtieri said 38-year-old Martin Takak, of Slovakia, fell un-roped into the crevasse while descending the peak before 1:30 AM Monday.
“Mr. Takak fell through the snow bridge and came to a rest about 40 feet below the glacier surface and was pretty tightly embedded in the ice,” Gualtieri said.
Gualtieri said other climbers saw Takak fall began trying to rescue him. The accident occurred at the mountain’s 7,800 foot level of the Kahiltna Glacier — along the West Buttress route. Gualteri said more than 2 dozen people participated in the rescue, some taking turns lowering themselves into the crevasse to chip away at the ice.
“After a lot of manual labor and a final hour of some mechanical advantage in the end with a pneumatic chisel, they were able to free him from the ice and get him, onward, into medical care,” Gualtieri said.
Gualtieri said Takak was severely hypothermic and suffering from critical injuries when he was flow to the hospital in Fairbanks.
“I would have to say that he has a tremendous will to survive, and he certainly was probably helped by the fact that he knew right away that there was a team of people working to get him out,” Gualtieri said.
Gualtieri said it was the second major crevasse rescue operation to retrieve an un-roped climber this spring on Denali.
“This year the lower glacier has had quite a bit of crevasse danger: weaker snow bridges than usual, not a lot of winter snow pack,” Gualtieri said.
The NPS cautions climbers to always travel roped, and to wear skis or snowshoes to increase flotation while crossing soft or thin snow packs.
Correction: In a previous version of this story Maureen Gualtieri’s name was misspelled. Her last name is Gualtieri, not Gaultieri.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
