Denali Report for July 9th, 2021

This week, it’s the final Denali Report of the year as the season continues to move toward its end, and a ranger spends his last summer on Denali.

This is the Denali Report for Friday, July 9th, 2021, and will be our final report for the season.  As of early this week, seventy-two climbers were still on Denali with all other attempts completed.  Even if none of those remaining climbers were to summit, the rate for the season would be around fifty-five percent, which is right in the average range.

This week in the National Park Service’s Denali Dispatches blog, Ranger Travis Baldwin pays tribute to Dave Weber.  Weber is the chief medic on Denali in the summers, and a paramedic in Utah outside of climbing season.  After a dozen seasons, he is moving on from being a ranger on Denali.  Baldwin’s description of Weber’s job is informative, insightful, and more than a little poetic.  A link to the post is available at KTNA.org.

While the season is expected to end before much longer, we will have some further coverage once things wrap up, including an upcoming story from Colleen Love about what it’s like to spend a summer at base camp.

While the Denali Report is ending for 2021, we’re still interested in hearing about interesting mountaineering stories.  If you know of one we should hear about, you can let us know at news@ktna.org.