A 41-year-old climber fell over 3,000 feet to his death off of Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, earlier this week.
Alex Chiu was reportedly climbing on the Peters Glacier when he fell half a mile on Monday, the National Park Service said.
“On Monday, June 2, the other two members of Chiu’s expedition reported that the unroped ski mountaineer fell at a location known as Squirrel Point towards the Peters Glacier, an exposed rocky and search covered 3000-foot face,” authorities said.
“After witnessing the fall, the reporting party lowered over the edge as far as possible but was unable to see or hear Chiu,”
“They then descended the West Buttress route for additional help before proceeding to Camp 1.”
High winds and snow hindered air and ground search efforts. Chiu’s body wasn’t recovered until Wednesday morning.
“Clearing weather on the north side of the Alaska Range provided the opportunity for two mountaineering rangers to depart Talkeetna for an aerial helicopter search to locate and recover the body.”
The body has since been transferred to the state medical examiner, park officials.
