In a recent blog post titled “Troubling Trends,” the National Park Service paints a picture of a dangerous climbing scene on Alaska’s Denali with overexcited and ill-prepared people trudging for the top, putting themselves and rescuers in harm’s way. Possibly motivated by recent deaths on the mountain, though accidents happen to even the most skilled climbers. Many serious injuries also occurred, including a man who, unroped, tumbled 1,000 feet trying to ascend to the 18,200-foot Denali Pass below the summit.
According to Alaska Public Radio, of the first month of the climbing season on Denali (May to early June), “there have been more search and rescue calls than in some entire years.”
The park service notes that lots of climbers are accustomed to 14,000-feet of elevation, and arrive at the 14 camp, situated at 14,000 feet, and try to make the 20,310-foot summit in one long push, a seriously bad idea in the Arctic.
“However, it also seems that many of the attempts to go to the summit from 14 camp in a single push are often a spur of the moment strategy that develops when an expedition has been pinned down by weather and is running out of time. In other words, it’s borne out of desperation, impatience, and summit fever.”
“The NPS policy is to only respond to immediate threats to life, limb, or eyesight. Anything that we deem falls outside these categories, we will leave you to figure out on your own, and this year we have already turned down rescue requests that don’t meet these criteria.”
Crowds have flocked to Denali’s West Buttress this spring, with Covid having canceled last year’s climbing plans for many, and, simply, a big push worldwide to get out and have adventures.
You can read the NPS blog post here, and more from APR about the issues facing Denali, here.
Photo: NPS /Jeff Pflueger
People overestimate their own level of knowledge and skill. Stay within your abilities!
@Brian studies show that smart people underestimate their knowledge and skill, while stupid people overestimate them 🙂
Two instances of rescue were completely unrelated to the premise of the article. The Ski Mountaineer was not even on Dinali and is a registered guide and was out on a personal trip. He fell into a crevasse and died terrible. He was very experienced but did not account for a continental interior snow pack covering massive crevasses and was caught off guard sad can happen to anyone when you travel in those kind of areas. Other guy was a unroped on a steep icy slope which is the correct thing to be doing. He fell going up Dinali Pass or down it which is very common because of a steep traversing icy slope. Anybody who ropes up without fixed protection into terrain like that is completely insane. Secondly, the national park created the problem by bringing in massive military helicopter support to create a massive base camp at 14,000 feet why do that? Why fly helicopters to 20,000 feet rescuing people every year? If you quit doing that a lot less people unprepared wille go up there and the ones that still do would die it would be sad and tragic but that’s the reality of high altitude mountaineering.
But no all these overly big government morons get all excited about being technical rescue experts in mountaineering rangers and they go in there and they rescue a bunch of incompetent people and there you go. Once again government creates a problem and then tries to blame it on someone else sad,
Cannondale, at one point, had a warning in the manual for one of their more *aggressive* models. This was back in the early 2000’s, mind you, before they became a brand sold in Walmart, and before toeing all corporate lines always, was so fashionable. I thought it threaded the needle perfectly.
“Please do not confuse the abilities of this bicycle, with your own”.
The world needs more warnings like this, rather than ones written by clueless, tone deaf lawyers.