Denali Report for May 16, 2025

This is the Denali Report for May 16, 2025

As of this week, there were 942 climbers registered to climb Denali and 30 people registered to attempt Mt. Foraker. There are 17 climbers currently on Mt. Foraker and 166 climbers currently on Denali. 19 mountaineers have finished their expeditions.

Usually, at this point in the season, the National Park Service begins publishing summit rates.  According to the Park Service, they’ve seen an increasing number of climbers becoming fixated on the daily summit rate as they begin their expeditions. But park service personnel have a different measure of success.  For them, enjoyment of the outdoors and making it home safely are the true measures of success.  

These factors have led National Park Service to make the decision to NOT report summit rates throughout the 2025 climbing season.

National Park Service Ranger, Joey McBrayer explains.

“When people come in and they see it’s a certain number and they feel like, maybe it’s something more in their realm or they’re gonna push it, cause they want to be one of those numbers that hits the top.  When you see it written down, it’s something that becomes tangible.”

McBrayer says the changes are part of a larger effort to continually improve their Preventative Search & Rescue Program. (PSAR)

“We’re always trying to try new things. A lot of it comes into outreach in terms of trying to prevent people getting frostbite or altitude illness. And I think our climbing staff is not just coming with climbing backgrounds and these medical backgrounds, but they also come with an administrative background where they’re sending emails out to climbers when they’re reviewing applications and files and asking them more questions about, Do they have these skills to be traveling on a glacier? or How are they going to prepare themselves if they get stuck in a situation?  Some of the logistics for their trips but also just geared more towards keeping them safe and what steps are they taking to keep them safe.”

The Park Service is keeping track of climbing statistics and they say they intend to publish overall summit rates when the climbing season is finished.  

For KTNA, I’m Colleen Love