CBS News reports that One climber was rescued from the 17,200-foot basin on Alaska's Mount McKinley, North America's tallest peak, and the search for three remaining climbers who also fell has become a recovery effort, the National Park Service said Friday.Search and rescue teams from the Denali National Park and Preserve rescued the climber at about 4 p.m.
local time Thursday, the park service said.
The fall occurred near Denali Pass, at about 18,200 feet."Due to terrain and conditions at the site, a high-altitude helicopter was unable to land and instead conducted the evacuation using a long-line extraction," the park service said in a news release.
"The climber was transported to the Kahiltna Base Camp and then transferred to a LifeMed air ambulance for transport to a hospital.
NPS does not have additional information about the status of the survivor."The Latvian Mountaineering Association on Friday announced the "tragic accident in a Latvian mountaineering expedition while climbing the highest peak in North America," saying "three of our friends, talented and experienced climbers, have lost their lives on the icy slopes of this mountain.""This is an unspeakably painful, irreparable loss for the entire family of Latvian mountain climbers," the association said in a statement.The park s...
The four climbers were part of a seven-person team.The three others climbing attended to those who fell, and then returned to an area known as high camp at around 17,000 feet, the park service had said.