The body of a climber was recovered from Denali late Friday evening. Climber Zulkifli (ZUL-kiff-lee) Bin Yusof (YOO-suf), one of a three-person Malaysian climbing team, died May 29th.
He likely died of exposure and altitude-related illness after enduring multiple days with minimal survival gear. He and one other climber on the team built a snow cave at the Football Field, a flat area at 19,600 feet on Denali.
Cloud cover and wind prevented rescuers from reaching the team. A high-altitude helicopter pilot was able to drop survival gear to the Football Field late Thursday night. The surviving team member was rescued early Friday morning.
The three-climber team sent out a distress signal from near the summit on Tuesday at 1am. The message indicated that the team was hypothermic and unable to descend. The first climber of the team was able to descent to 17,200-foot base camp where he was rescued by helicopter Tuesday evening.
