Three Climbers Lost on Alaska’s Highest Peak

A group of Latvian mountaineers faced a tragic accident on the world’s tallest North American summit, where three of them fell to their deaths near Denali Pass. The incident occurred during a week‑long expedition that began with seven climbers, but only four remained on the mountain after the fall. The National Park Service confirmed that one of those four survived and was rescued from a high‑altitude basin on Thursday, then flown to a hospital for treatment. The rescue team shifted its focus from searching for the missing climbers to recovering their bodies, as the park agency stated that it would not release details about fatalities until 72 hours after notifying relatives.

Information released by the Latvian Mountaineering Association identified the deceased as Inese Puceka, Vija Olte and Renars Kunigs‑Salaks. The association described the loss as a profound blow to their climbing community and reported that the fourth climber, Mārtiņš Bilzēns, who also fell, was in critical condition. The remaining expedition members were uninjured and returned safely to a lower camp after tending to their fallen teammates. They planned to descend with the help of rescue crews from a 17, 000‑foot level campsite. Denali, meaning “the high one” in the Athabascan language, has a complex naming history. It was officially called McKinley in 1917 after President William McKinley, though he never visited the mountain. In 2015 President Obama renamed it Denali; the name McKinley was reinstated by the Trump administration last year.

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