Park rangers recover body of mountaineer Alex Chiu, who fell 3,000 feet from Mount McKinley

Denali National Park rangers have recovered the body of a Seattle ski mountaineer who fell 3,000 feet while climbing Mount McKinley, park officials said.

Alex Chiu, 41, was climbing Monday without a rope on the mountain’s West Buttress route with two other people, Denali National Park said in a release. Mr. Chiu was at a location known as Squirrel Point when he fell 3,000 feet onto the Peters Glacier.

Park spokesperson Amber Smigiel told KUAC-TV that Mr. Chiu was heading down Mount McKinley and that his death is the first on the mountain this year.

“We still don’t know whether they were attempting to summit, whether they did summit. All we know is that he was on his descent,” Ms. Smigiel said.

After he fell, the rest of Mr. Chiu’s party lowered themselves as far as possible but could not hear or see him, park officials said. They then climbed down the Western Buttress route to try and get more help.

Rangers had to wait until Wednesday to check the accident site due to wind and snow, but were able to use a helicopter to find and retrieve Mr. Chiu’s body, officials said.