Two Mt. McKinley Climbers Fall To Their Deaths

Mt. McKinley's Messner Couloir

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two experienced climbers have fallen to their deaths on Alaska’s Mount McKinley.

National Park Service rangers have recovered the bodies of 39-year-John Mislow (MIZ’-low) of Newton, Mass., and 36-year-old Andrew Swanson of Minneapolis.

The climbers, both doctors, were roped together when they fell Thursday afternoon along a steep, hourglass-shaped snow gully called Messner Couloir (MEZ’-ner KOL’-ar).

Park Service spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin says many factors remain unknown about the fall, including its starting point and whether the climbers were ascending or descending.

McLaughlin says other climbers saw the men falling between the 16,500-foot elevation and Messner Couloir’s base at 14,500 feet.