Alaska Avalanche

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05 ... f=aponline" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

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Not much in the way of details. There are thousands of steep couloir's in the Ruth Gorge, so there is no way to know what peak they where on.

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But, here is some other news that is good....

Canadian climber cheats death in 1,000-foot Denali plunge
WEST RIB: Canadian tumbled a thousand feet, survived cold night.

By MIKE CAMPBELL
mcampbell@adn.com

Published: May 29th, 2010 11:30 PM
Last Modified: May 29th, 2010 11:31 PM

Canadian climber Luc Benoit had worked his way about 15,000 feet up Mount McKinley's steep and treacherous West Rib on a gorgeous Wednesday evening when he drove his ice ax into some mixed rock and ice to hoist himself along.

It didn't hold.
Benoit, who was climbing alone, fell backward and tumbled an estimated 1,000 feet down the face before a narrow, flat section stopped him. Though shaken and bruised, with an especially sore shoulder, Benoit was a lucky man.

"I'm surprised," Denali mountaineering ranger Kevin Wright said on Friday. "Several people familiar with the route told me, 'How can you possibly fall that far and not go all the way to the bottom to your death?' You have to hit everything perfectly."

Not only was Benoit, 40, alive, he was healthy enough to descend another 1,000 feet to a safer area to spend the night in minus-5 degree temperatures. While he lost much of his gear, Benoit still had his sleeping bag and his stove. Early the next morning, he radioed the Denali mountaineering rangers.

At midday Thursday, Denali National Park's A-Star B3 helicopter, piloted by Andy Hermansky, flew to the West Rib with Denali mountaineering ranger Tucker Chenoweth. Unable to find a suitable landing zone, Hermansky performed what is known as a "toe-in" landing maneuver, hovering with only the tips of his skids touching the snow, while Chenoweth helped the climber aboard.

"It was a little bit out of the ordinary, but the pilots are trained for toe-in technique," Wright said. "They do it all the time heli-skiing and on other contract work. It's well within our abilities."


Only about 5 percent of the more than 1,000 climbers attempting McKinley each year ascend the West Rib, which Denali National Park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin described as more dangerous than the popular West Buttress route.


"We don't see many solo climbers on that route," Wright said.

In 2008, 42 of the 1,272 climbers who attempted the summit chose that route. Crossing glacier ice in the crevasse-strewn lower section "makes it dicey for solo climbers," Wright said. Farther up, the slope steepens to 30-55 degrees as climbers negotiate mixed ice and rock sections.

"I would say it's much more dangerous," Wright said. "There are just a few places on West Buttress where you could take a 1,000-foot fall. The entire West Rib is that way."

Benoit, of Montreal, was flown to the Kahiltna base camp at 7,200 feet where he was examined by a volunteer physician before being flown to Talkeetna in a plane and released.

This was Benoit's third time on McKinley. He previously summitted via the West Buttress route.

As the McKinley climbing season nears its apex, with more than 400 climbers on North America's tallest mountain, three other air evacuations occurred recently.

• On the night of May 20, park rangers treated a guided climber for high-altitude pulmonary edema at the 17,200-foot camp. The next day, rangers assisted him down to the 14,200-foot camp and he was evacuated on Saturday after his condition did not improve.

• On Monday, a climber suffering severe altitude illness was evacuated from the 14,200-foot camp. His symptoms eased once he reached Talkeetna.

• A climber suffering severe pain due to a kidney stone was evacuated from the 7,800-foot camp on the West Buttress Wednesday. The park helicopter flew him to Talkeetna, where an ambulance brought him to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

So far this season, 165 climbers have reach the summit.

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This was posted this morning on the NSP Morning Report:

Denali National Park & Preserve (AK)
Avalanche In Ruth Gorge Claims Two Lives

Two climbers were killed in an avalanche in Ruth Gorge on the afternoon
of Saturday, May 29th. Canadian Andrew Herzenberg, 39, and Israeli Avner
Magen, 42, both current residents of Toronto, Ontario, were descending a
steep snow and ice gully wedged between Werewolf Tower and London Tower
on the southeast side of the Gorge when the avalanche occurred. Another
climbing party in the gorge witnessed the avalanche. Aware that a team
had been climbing in the vicinity and had not returned to their camp,
they skied closer to investigate and observed what appeared to be two
climbers and gear in the avalanche debris. The witnessing party used a
satellite phone to call National Park Service mountaineering rangers at
9 p.m. Saturday night. The Talkeetna-based NPS helicopter with two
rangers on board flew to Ruth Gorge and picked up one of the witnesses,
who directed them to the debris site. Shortly before 11 p.m., rangers
confirmed that the two men had died in the fall. Due to the late hour,
the helicopter and crew returned to Talkeetna. Both bodies were
recovered on Sunday morning. [Submitted by Maureen McLaughlin, Public
Information Officer]