Park Service releases mountaineering statistics for 2010

More than half of the climbers who scaled Mt. McKinley last year reached the summit. Denali National Park officials say 1,222 climbers took on McKinley in 2010 and 55 percent, or 670 climbers, reached the summit.The busiest day to the top was on June 20 when 54 climbers reached the summit. The average trip length of successful summits was 18.3 days.

The average age of climbers in 2010 was 38 years old, and 150 climbers were women.

While Denali usually gets all the attention, one team reached the summit of Mount Foraker via a new route. The international duo of Colin Haley and Bjorn-Eivind Artun climbed a previously unclimbed line. The climb involved 10,400 feet of elevation gain on the southeast face of Mt. Foraker. Haley and Artun spent a total of 37 days in the Alaska Range on this expedition.

Only one other team – of two that tried –  managed to reach Foraker’s summit via the Sultana route.

Most climbers from the US came from Alaska, trailed by climbers from Washington, Colorado and California.

The five nations most represented on McKinley were the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Poland and Russia.

The National Park Service released the 2010 climbing statistics last Friday.