Denali National Park and Preserve rangers recovered the body of a ski mountaineer Wednesday who fell to his death off a steep slope of the mountain earlier this week.
The agency identified the victim as 41-year-old Alex Chiu, of Seattle.
Park spokesperson Amber Smigiel said it was the first fatality on the mountain this year.
She says rangers surmise that Chiu slipped off a ledge on Denali’s West Buttress on Monday and fell onto the rocky face of the Peters Glacier.
“His body was found at the bottom of the 3,000-foot slope of the glacier,” she said.
Smigiel said park rangers resumed the search for Chiu Wednesday morning after weather conditions improved.
Chiu was one of three ski mountaineers who set out on an expedition Monday to ascend the peak. When they reached the 12,000-foot level, two of the mountaineers told rangers they saw Chiu slip and fall at a spot along the icy and steep portion of the route around Squirrel Point.
Smigiel said Wednesday that park officials aren’t sure whether the three mountaineers intended to reach Denali’s 20,310-foot summit. But she said it’s clear that Chui was on the way down the trail.
“We still don’t know whether they were attempting to summit, whether they did summit,” she said. “All we know is that he was on his descent.”
The park service says since 1980, at least 14 climbers have died along that treacherous section of the route. They include a solo climber who was killed last year by a fall from the 17,000-foot-level of the West Buttress.
“There were 27 search and rescue incidents in 2024, and three of those of those were fatalities,” Smigiel said.
She said all three of the ski mountaineers who set out Monday were un-roped. She said the park service strongly recommends that precaution while out on the mountain.
A park news release issued Wednesday said there are about 500 climbers now on Denali.
Smigiel said Chiu’s body has turned it over to the State Medical Examiner’s office for autopsy.
She said an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
