A 31-year-old Burnaby man is in critical condition after falling nearly 1,000 feet while climbing on North America’s highest mountain.
According to the National Park Service (NPS), Adam Rawski was climbing the Denali Pass in Alaska without a rope around 6 pm on Monday.
That’s when several people at the 17,200-foot high camp on Denali’s West Buttress saw him fall.
Several guides responded to the motionless Rawski while the park’s high-altitude helicopter quickly mobilized for an evacuation.
“Pilot Andy Hermansky flew to the 14,200-foot camp, picked up mountaineering ranger Chris Erickson and flew to the site of the fallen climber – landing at the site in less than 30 minutes from initial notification,” explained the NPS.
Rawski, who was alive but unresponsive due to his traumatic injuries, was loaded into the helicopter by Erickson and one of the guides.
He was then transported into the care of paramedics in Talkeetna, who provided immediate life-saving measures until a helicopter was able to move him to an Anchorage hospital.
There’s been no further update on his condition.
Denali, which was formerly called Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet above sea level.
