One climber dies, while another suffers severe injuries after falling 1,000 feet from a mountain in Alaska's Denali National Park.
Robbi Mecus, a resident of Keene Valley, New York, passed away due to injuries sustained from a fall, as announced by park officials. Meanwhile, her climbing partner, a 30-year-old woman from California, was saved by National Park Service mountaineering rangers on Friday morning and was airlifted to an Anchorage hospital with severe injuries, informed the park through a news release.
The duo, both roped climbers, was ascending the "Escalator" route on Mt. Johnson, which is a challenging alpine climb on the peak's southeast face that features a blend of vertical rock, ice, and snow, as mentioned in the park's statement.
A separate climbing party on the same route witnessed the fall and reported it to the Alaska Regional Communication Center around 10:45 p.m. The rescuers climbed down to the victims, where they discovered Mecus had perished in the fall. They set up a snow cave and provided medical attention to the surviving climber until the morning.
On Saturday morning, Denali's high-altitude helicopter and two mountaineering rangers arrived at the scene. One ranger descended to attend to the injured climber, and she was subsequently extracted from the mountain via short-haul and airlifted to a flat glacier. From there, the helicopter flew her to Talkeetna, Alaska, where she was transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance at the airport for further treatment.
Mecus' body was retrieved by the rescue team a day later, as per the park's update. "We are thankful for the heroic actions of Denali's mountaineering rangers and the two individuals on Mt. Johnson who assisted in saving a fellow climber's life. Our sympathy and condolences go out to Robbi Mecus' family and friends," said Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell.
CNN's Paradise Afshar and Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report. This story has been revised with fresh information.
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Source: edition.cnn.com
