Denali climber rescued after 14 hours in ice crevasse

Alaska Air National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Brett Wilson traverses lower Kahiltna Glacier while conducting winter rescue and glacier training on Mount McKinley. Wilson and four other Alaska Air National Guardsmen with the 212th Rescue Squadron became the first group to reach the 20,320-foot peak of Mount McKinley this year after summiting North America’s tallest mountain May 9. (Photo courtesy of the Alaska Air National Guard)
Alaska Air National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Brett Wilson traverses lower Kahiltna Glacier in this file photo while conducting winter rescue and glacier training on Mount McKinley. Denali climber Martin Takak fell into a crevasse on Monday, spending 14 hours wedged deep in the ice.(Photo courtesy of the Alaska Air National Guard)

A Denali climber was rescued Monday after spending 14 hours wedged deep in a crevasse.

Martin Takak, 38, of Slovakia, fell un-roped into the crevasse while descending the peak before 1:30 a.m. Monday, National Park Service spokeswoman Maureen Gaultieri said.

“Mr. Takak fell through the snow bridge and came to a rest about 40 feet below the glacier surface and was pretty tightly embedded in the ice,” Gaultieri said.

Other climbers saw Takak fall and began trying to rescue him, Gaultieri said. The accident occurred at the mountain’s 7,800 foot level of the Kahiltna Glacier — along the West Buttress route.

More than two dozen people participated in the rescue, Gaulteri said, some taking turns lowering themselves into the crevasse to chip away at the ice.

“After a lot of manual labor and a final hour of some mechanical advantage in the end with a pneumatic chisel, they were able to free him from the ice and get him, onward, into medical care,” Gaultieri said.

Takak was severely hypothermic, Gaultieri said, and suffering from critical injuries when he was flow to the hospital in Fairbanks.

“I would have to say that he has a tremendous will to survive,” Gaultieri said. “He certainly was probably helped by the fact that he knew right away that there was a team of people working to get him out.”

It was the second major crevasse rescue operation to retrieve an un-roped climber this spring on Denali, Gaultieri said.

“This year the lower glacier has had quite a bit of crevasse danger: weaker snow bridges than usual, not a lot of winter snow pack,” Gaultieri said.  

The National Park Service cautions climbers to always travel roped, and to wear skis or snowshoes to increase flotation while crossing soft or thin snow packs.

KUAC - Fairbanks

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