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Mountaineer dies after falling 3,000 feet from Mount McKinley in Alaska

By
Published  June 10, 2025 9:51am MST
Alaska
FOX Local
article

FILE-A view of Mount Denali or Mount McKinley in Denali National Park, Alaska, 2003. (Photo by Buddy Mays/Getty Images).

The Brief

    • Alex Chiu died after he fell 3,000 feet from Alaska’s Mount McKinley.
    • The 41-year-old man wasn’t wearing a rope during the incident.
    • Two mountaineers on the excursion with Chiu witnessed him fall.

A mountaineer died after he fell 3,000 feet from Alaska’s Mount McKinley, also known as Denali.

Alex Chiu was ascending Mount McKiney’s West Buttress climbing route on to the Peters Glacier on June 2, which is roughly 12,000 feet above sea level.

RELATED: Alaska man pinned by 700-pound boulder for 3 hours walks away unharmed

National Park Service officials said in a release that high winds and snow prevented ground and air search teams from looking in the area where Chiu fell. 

Two days later when the weather conditions improved, two rangers conducted a helicopter and Chiu’s body was recovered on June 4 and it was taken to the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office. 

Members of expedition group saw mountaineer fall

Local perspective:

Alex Chiu was ski mountaineering, an activity involving ascending and descending the route with skis.  The 41-year-old was joined by two other mountaineers during the excursion.

Chiu was not wearing a rope during the adventure when he fell, and National Park Service officials said the two other mountaineers witnessed Chiu fall and they lowered themselves over the edge of the mountain as far as they could but couldn’t see or hear Chiu fall. 

The mountaineers descended on the mountain to ask for help and crews started their search after eventually recovering Chiu’s body.

Chiu was an aerospace engineer at the Federal Aviation Administration and was previously employed as a software engineer at Boeing, FOX News reported, citing his LinkedIn profile. 

FOX News noted on Chiu’s social media accounts, the Seattle man describes himself as a storyteller, traveler, scuba diver, rock climber, alpinist, and marathon runner.

NPS officials said a similar accident happened in 2010 when a French mountaineer, who was not wearing a rope, fell to his death near the same location, but his body was never found. 

The Source: Information for this story was provided by a National Park Service release and FOX News.  This story was reported from Washington, D.C. 

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