One Malaysian climber dies, one is rescued near Denali summit, North America’s highest mountain

JUNEAU, Alaska — A climber from Malaysia who was stranded for three days near North America’s highest mountain after attempting to summit was rescued Friday, but his partner died, officials said. A third member of the team was rescued this week after descending lower on Alaska’s Denali.

After days of cloudy and windy weather conditions, Denali National Park and Preserve staff managed to rescue the surviving climber on Friday morning at an altitude of 5,974 meters, where he and his partner had been holed up in a snow cave since Tuesday evening, the park said.

Late Thursday night, the pilot of the park’s high-altitude helicopter was able to drop a bag of survival equipment near the snow cave and saw a climber waving to him, but strong winds prevented a rescue at that time, the park said.

Until the rescue Friday morning, rescuers were not sure if one or both climbers were still alive, park spokesman Paul Ollig said by email. He noted that communication with the climbers had been partially limited after rangers first received an SOS from the three-person team at 1 a.m. Tuesday, indicating they were suffering from hypothermia and could not descend after reaching Denali’s 20,000-foot (6,190-meter) summit.

The authorities are still gathering information about what happened and the language barrier is a challenge, said Ollig. The climbers come from Malaysia.

“All we know at this point is that the deceased climber died about two days ago,” Ollig said by email.

The climber rescued Friday was taken to an Anchorage hospital for further treatment and “was in surprisingly strong condition and was even able to walk on his own considering what he went through,” Ollig said, adding that the park would not release any further information about him or the other survivor.

Rangers wanted to recover the body of the climber, who later died.

The climbers were part of a three-person team that, according to Ollig, had climbing history on “several high-altitude international peaks.” Two of them had previous experience on Denali, he said.

The third climber, previously identified as a 48-year-old, was rescued Tuesday night after descending to a camp at 5,243 meters. The park described him as suffering from severe frostbite and hypothermia.