1 climber killed, another wounded by falling ice in national park

One climber was killed and another was injured in Denali National Park and Preserve after a falling block of ice hit the duo last week.

A hanging block of glacier ice dislodged from a peak off the West Fork of the Ruth Glacier last Thursday at approximately 5 a.m., according to a statement from the national park.

The climber who survived, a 31-year-old man from Logan, Utah, was knocked unconscious by the ice. When he woke, he determined that the other climber, a 32-year-old man from Rigby, Idaho, “died in the accident,” according to the park’s statement. 

Neither man was publicly identified in the statement. 

The climber who survived alerted officials by 6 a.m. and moved to a “location outside of the debris zone” despite sustaining “serious injuries.”

The surviving climber was given medical treatment on a safer part of the glacier before being transferred by air ambulance for addition medical treatment.

Rangers are set to return to the site of the incident “to assess the possibility of recovering” the body of the climber who died “when weather conditions allow,” according to the park’s statement.

The climber’s death marks the second fatality on Denali this year. Earlier this month, 28-year-old Mason Stansfield of Ouray, Colo., died while skiing on a glacier.

Denali National Park and Preserve is more than 200 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. Denali marks North America’s highest peak.