A Washington skier died on Denali Tuesday evening, after rangers say he triggered an avalanche that caught and carried him more than 1,500 feet down the mountain.
Denali National Park and Preserve officials said in a statement that Nicholas Vizzini, 29, was the skier killed in the slide. He is the second person to die on the mountain in just over a week.
Park officials said Vizzini and a snowboarder had climbed along the West Buttress route of the mountain, recently renamed Mount McKinley by President Trump.
At about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, park staff said the two triggered the soft slab avalanche while descending the slope near the Rescue Gully, above the mountain’s Camp 14. The slide started at an altitude of 16,600 feet, continuing down to about 15,000 feet.
A pair of mountaineering rangers on an acclimatization climb saw Vizzini’s partner atop the avalanche debris. They reached the site in minutes, starting a signal search that quickly found Vizzini’s avalanche beacon.
“During the search, Vizzini was visually located and found to be mostly buried in the debris,” park officials said. “The rangers immediately began digging to establish an airway. CPR was initiated but discontinued after 40 minutes due to traumatic injuries and no pulse.”
Vizzini’s body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office. The snowboarder suffered minor injuries and was awaiting transport off the mountain Wednesday.
Park spokeswoman Amber Smigiel said Wednesday that rangers were still gathering information about avalanche conditions on the West Buttress at the time of the slide, as well as its estimated depth and width.
Park officials said there have been more than 130 deaths on Denali recorded in the history of the park, about 13 of them linked to avalanches.
This is the second death on Denali this climbing season. Last week another Washington man, 41-year-old climber Alex Chiu, was found dead after a 3,000-foot fall along the West Buttress route on the mountain’s Peters Glacier. Rangers said Chiu was not roped to his two fellow climbers at the time.
Officials said there are currently 500 climbers on the mountain, with the climbing season expected to end in early July.
