Denali Report for June 8th, 2018

As of late this week, 1,028 climbers are registered to attempt Denali. Of those, 530 attempts are currently underway. More than 300 climbs have been completed, with just over 150 people making it to the highest point in North America. That makes the current summit rate forty-six percent.

All seven climbers registered to attempt Mt. Foraker have returned from the Alaska Range, with none making it to the summit.

This week saw the percentage of climbers reaching the top of Denali increase dramatically. More than a hundred summits have been recorded since the end of May.

One reason for the increase may be the trail conditions. According to the National Park Service, at least two veteran mountaineering rangers say the West Buttress trail is in the best condition they’ve ever seen.

The week was not without its complications, however. With high numbers of climbers making summit attempts Tuesday morning, bottlenecks meant long wait times. In at least one case, that long wait contributed to severe frostbite for a climber who was part of a guided group. The frostbite was serious enough that the climber was started on a specialized treatment that begins in the Mat-Su and ends at a burn center in Utah. One of the guides in the evacuated climber’s party also had to be flown out of the Alaska Range for a less severe case of frostbite.

There was also a false alarm from a climbing group on Denali’s south face. Also on Tuesday, the “SOS” feature was activated on a GPS tracker. After reconnaissance from the air and elsewhere on the mountain, it was determined that the group was safe and sound, and the alert was triggered accidentally.