Update, Saturday:
The remains of the climber who died earlier this week near the summit of Denali have been recovered, according to a statement from park officials on Saturday.
Officials identified the climber as 36-year-old Zulkifli Bin Yusof, and say he likely died on Wednesday of exposure and altitude-related illness “after enduring multiple days with minimal survival gear in a snow cave at 19,600 feet on Denali.”
His two climbing partners are recuperating in an Anchorage hospital with cold-related injuries, the statement said.
Original story, Friday:
One of the two climbers trapped since Tuesday near Denali’s summit was rescued alive by a helicopter crew early Friday. The other died in a snow cave while waiting for help, according to park officials.
The rescue at 19,600 feet took place at about 7 a.m., according to a statement from Denali National Park and Preserve staff. Clouds and high winds that had grounded flights near the mountain’s peak relented Thursday night, allowing the park’s high-altitude helicopter to drop a duffel bag of supplies near the snow cave in which the hypothermic climbers had taken shelter.
“The pilot observed one climber waving at him at the time of the air drop, however winds were still too strong to safely conduct a short-haul basket extraction,” park officials said in the statement.
By Friday morning, the helicopter had returned to the area with a pilot and park ranger.
“The surviving mountaineer climbed into the basket and was flown down to the 7,200-foot Kahiltna Basecamp, then evacuated to the Talkeetna State Airport for transfer to a LifeMed air ambulance,” park officials said.
Ollig said the man was in “surprisingly strong condition” and walking without help, according to Talkeetna-based rangers. He was taken to Anchorage for medical care.
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 that summited Denali early Tuesday. But they then used an inReach satellite communications device to request help from the summit, saying they were exhausted, hypothermic and couldn’t get down.
One of the climbers was able to make it to the mountain’s high camp later Tuesday and was flown off the mountain in serious condition, but the other two sheltered in a cave to await help. By Wednesday night, they reported that their inReach was dying.
“We received kind of a flurry of five really brief messages from the climbers at that time indicating that their inReach device was at 1% battery life,” park spokesman Paul Ollig said.
Ollig said no communications had been received from the climbers since Wednesday night. After rescuers reached the surviving climber on Friday, he informed them that his climbing partner had died.
“He had expressed that his partner had died approximately two days prior to being rescued,” Ollig said.
The deceased climber wasn’t 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 time frame has been set for doing so.
This week’s death is the third in Denali National Park during the 2024 climbing season, which park officials say is largely concentrated on the two weeks following Memorial Day.
New York park ranger Robbi Mecus, 52, died April 25 after falling about 1,000 feet on Mount Johnson in the park’s Ruth Gorge. Japanese climber T. Hagiwara was found dead May 20 on Denali, after what park staff said appeared to be a fall during his solo ascent.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
