An experienced climber tragically falls to their death from North America’s tallest mountain after a 3,000-foot drop.

A Seattle man died after falling 3,000 feet from a climbing route at Denali National Park in Alaska, the National Park Service said Wednesday.

A man named Alex Chiu, 41 years old, was climbing Mount McKinley’s West Buttress route on June 2. This route is one of the most popular in the park. Surprisingly, Alex was undertaking this climb without being attached to a safety rope, as indicated by a statement from the park authorities.

Alex was ski mountaineering, a challenging activity that involves both ascending and descending using skis. He was part of a three-person team attempting to reach the summit of North America’s tallest peak.

Unfortunately, two members of his group witnessed Alex’s fall on a rocky surface covered in sharp ice formations. They tried to lower themselves to get a closer look over the edge, but they were unable to see or hear Alex after he fell, according to park officials.

The pandemic put the brakes on his alpine climbs, but he dreamed of heading back to the climb.

“So tomorrow I am getting on an airplane to Alaska,” he wrote in an Instagram post on May 19, “in an attempt to climb the third-highest peak in the world because I don’t want to know what happens to a dream deferred.”

The Alaska Range with Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake with Tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus) in the fall, Denali National Park, Alaska. (Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The busiest season on the mountain lasts from mid-May to mid-June; there were about 500 climbers on it Wednesday, the agency said. Chiu is one of several people who have died while climbing Mount McKinley or other areas of Denali National Park.

In April 2024, 52-year-old Robbi Mecus, of Keene Valley, New York, fell to his death while climbing an estimated 1,000 feet off Mount Johnson in the national park. 

The NPS said that a similar accident happened in 2010, in a similar location. That incident involved an unroped French mountaineer, who fell to his death on the Peters Glacier. His body was never recovered.