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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Monday, May 12, 2014 INCIDENTS Denali NP&P Climber Dies On Mount McKinley One member of a two-person climbing team perished last week in an early season climbing fall on Mt. McKinley. The fatal fall likely occurred on May 5th after the two climbers became separated during a descent from Denali Pass in stormy weather. M.F., 34, of Berlin, Germany, and S.M., 39, of Tacoma, Washington, began their ascent of the Muldrow Glacier route on April 15th. They reached Denali Pass at 18,200 feet on May 3rd, where they encountered strong winds that forced them to camp for two nights. At 11 a.m. on Monday, May 5th, M.F. contacted rangers at the Walter Harper Talkeetna Ranger Station via satellite phone from the 17,200-foot High Camp on the West Buttress. He reported that the two had gotten separated as they descended from Denali Pass to the 17,200-foot camp. They were not roped together, nor did they have radio communications with one another. M.F. said they'd both been weakened by the several nights spent at Denali Pass, and that each possessed only partial survival gear. In addition to his personal gear, M.F. had their satellite phone and camp stove, while S.M. had the tent, limited food, and her personal gear. Due to limited visibility and high winds estimated between 40 to 60 mph, M.F. took shelter in an NPS rescue cache, a metal storage locker for emergency supplies and equipment at 17,200 feet. He phoned back the following morning and asked for a rescue for both himself and S.M., who he hoped was camped at Denali Pass. The weather that day remained windy with low visibility and an NPS helicopter rescue was not feasible. Furthermore, a ground rescue was not possible, as M.F. and S.M. were two of the earliest Denali climbers of the 2014 season and at the time were the only climbers above 14,200 feet on the mountain. The only NPS ranger patrol on the mountain was camped at 7,800-feet. On Wednesday morning, M.F. called and reported slightly calmer winds and clear skies at 17,200 feet. He also reported that he had still not seen his climbing partner descending Denali Pass. Clouds and poor visibility below his altitude hampered a rescue that day, though a Hercules C-130 from the 210th Rescue Squadron was launched at noon by the Rescue Coordination Center in Anchorage to provide aerial reconnaissance and weather reports. The C-130 crew reported no sighting of S.M. near Denali Pass. Taking advantage of a clearing trend Wednesday evening, a mountaineering ranger and pilot flew to the pas in Denali's high altitude A-Star B3 helicopter, with the C-130 flying as a cover aircraft. After several passes of the area, the helicopter crew spotted S.M.'s body 800 to 1,000 feet below the Denali Pass traverse on the Peters Glacier. M.F. was observed by the flight crew standing near his camp at 17,200 feet. The NPS helicopter returned to the Kahiltna Basecamp at 7,200-feet to drop off the mountaineering ranger. Pilot Andy Hermansky then flew back to the 17,200-foot camp to evacuate M.F. using a rescue basket attached to a shorthaul line under the helicopter. M.F. was flown to the Kahiltna Basecamp for a medical assessment, then evacuated to Talkeetna State Airport and released. S.M.'s body will be recovered when an NPS ground team reaches the 17,200 foot camp. [Maureen Gualtieri] Buffalo NR Body Of Drowning Victim Found After Three-Day Search On the morning of Saturday, May 3rd, a mission was launched by the park's search and rescue team after a report was received of an overdue hunter. Family members had reported that W.T., a well-known local Arkansas resident in his mid-forties, failed to return home from a turkey hunting trip that began early Friday morning in the Baker Ford area of the park. Buffalo National River SAR coordinated with Searcy County on a search of the river corridor and adjacent lands that got underway around 10 a.m. on Saturday. W.T. had been traveling by kayak to reach a well-known hunting area. During the course of the search, some of W.T.'s personal items were recovered from the riverbanks. Plot cameras set up along the river for creel surveys by resource management staff were checked and found to contain photos of two kayakers finding W.T.'s kayak, which was tangled in brush, and taking it downriver. A helicopter which had been called in from Baxter County Sheriff's Office and had previously been sweeping the area followed the river's course and discovered the kayakers 31 miles downriver at Dillard's Ferry. The pilot landed the helicopter, made contact with the kayakers, and retrieved the kayak. Intensive foot and horseback searches were undertaken on land surfaces along both sides of the river while helicopter sweeps were made along the river corridor. Family members offered many suggestions as to likely locations based on W.T.'s recent conversations about where he had seen turkeys. During the next two days' search, dive teams and drag hook teams swept the river bottom. In the afternoon on Monday a drag team hooked W.T.'s shotgun from a pool approximately a half mile upstream from where he'd launched his kayak. Dive teams were relocated to this area and within the hour an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission dive team found W.T.'s body in the same pool where the shotgun was found. By mission's end, over 150 civilian volunteers and personnel from almost two dozen agencies had contributed efforts to the cause. The park expresses sincere gratitude to all of them for their indispensable cooperation. Middle Buffalo District Ranger Kevin Moses was incident commander for the first two days; FMO Fenn Wimberly was IC on the third day. [Karen Bradford, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers): National Parks of New York Harbor - Students at Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship High School, established last fall through a partnership between the NPS and New York City, are finishing up their first year at this unique historic preservation-centered school. Office of Communications - A number of National Park Service employees and partners were recognized at the Department of the Interior's 69th Honor Awards Convocation last week. Ozark NSR - Current and former employees, volunteers and their families are invited to Ozark National Scenic Riverways 50th anniversary reunion on Sunday, October 12th. Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings, newly introduced bills, and the status of legislation of interest to the National Park Service. This report covers activities in Congress for the week ending May 9th. North Cascades NP - Reed Glesne, lead aquatic ecologist for the North Cascades National Park Complex, retired on April 3rd after a nearly 38-year federal career, including the last 23 years at North Cascades. To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites: NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/ The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov). --- ### --- |