Overview
- Four members of a seven-person Latvian expedition fell near Denali Pass on the West Buttress route, with the fall occurring on Wednesday and three later reported dead while a fourth was hoisted off the mountain and flown to hospital.
- Denali National Park rangers said poor weather and exposed, hazardous slopes initially prevented helicopter landings and forced rescuers to use a long-line hoist to extract the survivor from about 17,200 feet.
- The Latvian Mountaineering Association identified the three deceased as Inese Pučeka, Vija Olte, and Renārs Kunigs-Salaks and named the rescued climber as Mārtiņš Bilzēns, reporting the deaths on Friday.
- Park officials have moved on-mountain operations from search-and-rescue to recovery and said they will withhold detailed fatality information until 72 hours after next-of-kin notification.
- The accident highlights known dangers on the West Buttress between High Camp and Denali Pass, a stretch of crevasses, steep ice and exposed ridges where falls have been a leading cause of deaths on the mountain and where climbers must carry their own protection.