As climate changes, mountaineering risks at Denali NP&Pres getting more extreme; old patterns no longer hold
TALKEETNA, Alaska — At 16,400 feet on Mount McKinley, Eric Roche looked toward the summit, still nearly 4,000 feet distant through deep and perilous snow. Then he looked at the picture of his wife and son, mounted on his ice ax and carried through two weeks of climbing. And he changed his mind. He would go home.
“The avalanche risk seemed too great,” he said last week as he unpacked his kit in this small town at the foot of McKinley in south-central Alaska. “I feel good about the decision.”
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