Posted on 05/30/2026 8:08:15 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The National Park Service reported that four climbers from a seven-member expedition suffered a fall on Wednesday in the vicinity of Denali Pass, located about 2,100 feet (640.1 metres) below the 20,310-foot summit of McKinley, North America's tallest peak.
The survivor was rescued on Thursday from a mountain basin at 17,200 feet and later transferred to an air ambulance for transport to a hospital, the Park Service said. "Operations for the three remaining climbers have transitioned from a search and rescue mission to a recovery effort," the Park Service said in an online statement, adding the agency "does not release information about fatality victims until 72 hours after next-of-kin notification."
The agency gave few additional details and made no mention of the climbers' nation of origin.
The Latvian Mountaineering Association named the three deceased climbers as Inese Puceka, Vija Olte, and Renars Kunigs-Salaks, according to a ChatGPT Latvian-to-English translation of the group's statement on its website.
he association said a fourth climber, who also fell, Mārtiņš Bilzēns, was in critical condition. The three remaining members of the expedition, not injured in the accident, returned safely to a camp on the mountain after tending to their fallen climbing partners, the Park Service said.
The Latvian Mountaineering Association said the three planned to descend from the 17,000-foot-level camp with the assistance of rescuers.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Didnt those guys have a plan for when everything went to sh!t? (How we gonna survive if 3 or 4 of us get dead?)
Here are rest of us wiping the red smear off the mountain.
Experienced climbing teams are roped together and when one starts to slip, they yell “Falling!” and then the rest basically go to ground and cling to whatever they can to take the shock of the falling climber and arrest anyone else before the weight and momentum of the fallen takes anyone else with them.
The one or two closest may render assistance to the fallen to get back to a safe hold. But most of the team remain in place to anchor and belay the team until they work themselves out of the mess.
As I understand it.
Ping...😥
God punished those who do not use their brain.
God very generously gave us an amazing brain and if you don’t use it, it’s not his job to rescue you.
Climbing Mt. McKinley
Hunting for gold in a cave.
Were miners hunting for gold? or doing it as part of a job?
Thinking those items are also on MY “common sense” list.
Putin?
😉
“Mount McKinley”? Not “Denali”?
Naughty, naughty, Rooters, how non-PC of you!
I thought Obama or Biden changed the name to of Mt. McKinley to Denali, it’s Native American name.
Beat me to it.
Reuters is in Denali denial.
Buncha dudes just looking for gold in an old mine...that’s what boys do...
Couldn’t read the signs. Happens all the time.
As you say, Denali ain’t just a mountain in Alaska!
This would never have occurred of course if the mountain’s name had not been changed for DEI purposes.
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