Denali Report for May 20th, 2022

This is the Denali Report for Friday, May 20^th, 2022. As of this week, there are 1,109 climbers registered to attempt Denali with 309 currently on the mountain.  Nineteen climbs have been completed thus far with no summits officially recorded, yet.  Seven of the seventeen climbers expected to attempt Mt. Foraker are currently on the mountain with no trips completed, yet.

On Wednesday afternoon, the National Park Service reported the death of a Japanese climber who fell into a crevasse near the base of Mt. Hunter, the third-highest peak in the Alaska Range.  The name of the climber, a 43-year-old man from Kanagawa Prefecture, has not been released.  According to the Park Service, the deceased climber fell through a weakened ice bridge near 8,000 feet on Tuesday while not roped to the rest of his team.  One of the climber’s teammates returned to Base Camp for help late Tuesday night. 

A mountaineering ranger rappelled into the crevasse and saw that it had filled with ice and snow about eighty feet below the glacier surface, burying the fallen climber.  Due to the amount of ice burying him, the depth of the fall, and the amount of time he has been buried, the fallen climber was presumed dead.  The National Park Service says it will evaluate the feasibility of recovering the climber’s body in the coming days.

The same day as the fatal crevasse fall on Mt. Hunter, the Park Service was able to recover the body of Matthias Rimml, who suffered a fatal fall on Denali early this month.

In positive climbing news, there are rumors of the first summits of the season, but they will not be officially recorded until the climber or climbers returns to Talkeetna.

The National Park Service posts updates throughout the week on happenings in the Alaska Range on its Denali Dispatches blog.