ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The National Park Service says a climber died in an avalanche near the Ruth Gorge early Thursday morning.
The Park Service says two climbing parties were camped overnight on the “Root Canal,” a glacier landing strip south of the Moose’s Tooth peak.
At about 1 a.m. a large column of ice at the east end of the glacier collapsed, shedding ice and snow onto the camp below, fatally injuring one male climber.
Four climbers survived, and found the man unconscious and barely breathing after the ice fall. The survivors called 911 using a satellite phone, and the man was still alive when Park Service mountaineering rangers arrived.
