The guided party saw the climbers falling from the narrow West Buttress ridge. One of the pair appeared to be trying to arrest the fall.
After approximately a thousand feet, they stopped in a large crevasse on the Peters Glacier. From the ridge above, they were no longer visible.
The May 2018 Peters Glacier rescue began with both witnesses and a distress beacon. Those advantages still left rescuers separated from the patients by terrain and deteriorating weather.
Peters Glacier: The signal below the ridge
The pair had been roped together but were not using snow anchors, according to the National Park Service. After coming to a stop, they activated a personal locator beacon.
Its signal reached the Rescue Coordination Center, which alerted the park. A ranger patrol already nearby moved toward the accident location.
Visibility then worsened and winds increased. The patrol returned to the 14,200-foot camp to organize a larger team and collect technical equipment. An aerial reconnaissance attempt that evening was also forced back by wind.
The signal could tell responders where assistance was needed. It could not make the approach safe.
Before sunrise on May 21, while a rescue team was preparing to leave camp, one of the fallen climbers arrived there on an injured knee. He reported that his partner remained on the glacier, injured and unable to walk but alert and stable.
Moving before the weather closed again
Teams of rangers, volunteers and mountain guides climbed toward the ridge. The first group descended to the injured woman’s position in the crevasse.
A helicopter approached with a short-haul line and rescue harness. As conditions began deteriorating again, responders assessed her and prepared her for the flight to the 14,200-foot camp.
There she was evaluated further and moved into the helicopter for transport to Talkeetna. An air ambulance continued her medical evacuation for significant spinal injuries. Other members of the climbing party were evacuated later.
The evacuation ended the woman’s isolation on the glacier and brought her to medical care for serious injuries.
What makes the sequence frightening is how quickly visibility and access became separate questions. People had seen the accident. A beacon transmitted a location. A partner eventually carried news into camp. None of those facts, by itself, placed a rescue team beside the woman.
That required a chain of people moving upward, downward and through the air while the mountain allowed it. Her evacuation depended on that opening in the weather—and on the teams being ready to use it.
Sources and reporting
Researched reporting: an original narrative based on the published records linked below.
