A New Jersey climber collapsed at 19,700-feet on Denali during a summit attempt on Friday, June 4. His mountain guides immediately initiated cardio-pulmonary resuscitation at approximately 5:45 p.m., but the climber who has been identified as 48-year-old Fernando Birman of Stockton, New Jersey, never regained a pulse.
He was pronounced deceased at the scene. The cause of death is unknown, but according to the National Park Service, it is consistent with sudden cardiac arrest.
Birman’s guides assisted in the body recovery, which was made from the 19,500-foot plateau known as the ‘Football Field’ using a short-haul basket. Birman’s body was transferred to the State of Alaska medical examiner late Friday night.
This comes after a 43-year-old climber from Kanagawa, Japan died in an ice bridge crevasse fall at the base of Mount Hunter’s North Buttress on May 17, and the body of a 35-year-old Austrian solo climber was found on May 6 after a colleague reported not hearing from his friend since Saturday, April 30.
A spokesperson for Denali National Park tells the Associated Press that there have been 129 climbing deaths at the park since 1932.
