The repatriation of three Latvian climbers who died in Alaska from the United States to Latvia has been completed, the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the LETA news agency.
The repatriation process was organised by Latvian insurers in cooperation with partner companies in the United States. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the repatriation was carried out in accordance with US rules and procedures.
As previously reported, three Latvian climbers – Inese Pučeka, Vija Olte and Renārs Kunigs-Salaks – died in late May after falling on a steep slope of Denali, the highest mountain in North America. Another member of the expedition, Mārtiņš Bilzēns, was taken to a hospital in Anchorage in serious condition.
Meanwhile, three other members of the expedition – Puriņš, Edgars Madžulis and Guntis Svariņš – were evacuated from the mountain with the assistance of rescuers. Two of them were diagnosed with frostbite.
According to information provided by the Latvian Embassy in the United States,
ALL THREE DECEASED CLIMBERS WERE BROUGHT DOWN FROM DENALI DURING THE NIGHT LEADING INTO the 4th of June,
Latvian time.
According to the US National Park Service, the accident occurred on the climbing route between the mountain’s upper camp, known as High Camp, and Denali Pass, beginning near Denali Pass at an altitude of approximately 18,200 feet, or 5,545 metres.
Information published on the National Park Service website on the 28th of May indicated that, in the first incident, two climbers were evacuated from the mountain at around 11 p.m. local time. The service later clarified that this was a separate incident.
Around midnight, National Park Service rangers received a second report stating that four climbers from a seven-member team had fallen in the Denali Pass area. Three climbers returned to High Camp after assisting their fallen teammates.
The expedition team previously told LETA that
the Latvian climbers’ high-altitude expedition had been scheduled to take place from the 10th of May to the 11th of June.
Its objective was to reach the summit of Denali, North America’s highest peak at 6,190 metres.
Denali is one of the world’s highest mountains situated closest to the Arctic Circle. The climbers had previously stressed that the expedition was not so much about altitude as it was about extreme cold. They expected temperatures of minus 30°C, storms and more than three weeks of living in tents on snow, while carrying 25-kilogram backpacks and, at the beginning of the expedition, pulling sledges weighing another 25 kilograms.
The climbers had previously said that Puriņš, Madžulis and the late Pučeka had participated in two previous expeditions organised by clubs affiliated with the Latvian Mountaineering Association. They had reached the summits of Avicenna Peak at 7,134 metres, Ozodi Peak at 7,105 metres and Ismoil Somoni Peak at 7,495 metres, as well as completing a first ascent of a nearly 6,000-metre peak in the Mindžāras Valley in the Pamir Mountains, gaining extensive high-altitude experience.
It was also stated that the other members of expedition – the late Olte and Kunigs-Salaks, as well as Bilzēns, Zeimulis and Svariņš – had the necessary high-altitude mountaineering experience.
Denali’s summit lies only around 390 kilometres from the Arctic Circle.
The route begins at an altitude of 2,200 metres on the Kahiltna Glacier, which can only be reached by aircraft landing directly on the ice.
The climbers previously explained that after snowstorms, everyone at Base Camp helps pack down the snow so aircraft can land and take off safely. During the expedition, climbers must gain almost 4,000 metres in elevation and cover approximately 100 kilometres in total. Nearly every section of the route has to be travelled several times while transporting equipment and enough food for 25 days.
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