Bad weather has halted a search for a 41-year-old mountaineer who remains missing after falling Monday off the West Buttress of Denali.
National Park Service spokesperson Amber Smigiel said a ground search was called off Tuesday after heavy winds and snow set in on the mountain, recently renamed Mount McKinley by President Trump. She said rangers are monitoring conditions every hour in hopes the weather will break so they can restart the search.
“It’s windy and snowing in the area, so we have not been able to send out either ground or aerial crews,” Smigiel said. “So everyone’s on standby, waiting for the weather to clear.”
Smigiel said three ski mountaineers set out on an expedition Monday to ascend the peak. She said when they reached the 12,000-foot level later in the afternoon, two of the mountaineers saw the third member fall at a spot along the trail called Squirrel Point. They said he fell towards the rocky, 3,000-foot face of Peters Glacier.
“But we don’t know how far he fell,” she said. “There was no visual confirmation from the other members of his team as to where he landed.”
According to a Park Service news release, the two remaining expedition members lowered themselves over the edge of the West Buttress as far as possible, but were unable to see or hear the missing mountaineer. So they descended the route to seek additional help, and on Tuesday afternoon were at Camp 1, where they were being treated and evaluated by a ranger team.
Smiegel declined to identify the missing mountaineer, but said he’s a Washington resident. None of the three expedition members were roped together, a precaution the Park Service highly recommends when climbing the mountain.
Smigiel said the Park Service hopes to resume ground and air search Wednesday. Search efforts remained suspended for the morning, she said.
KTNA's Andrew Gelderman contributed information to this story.