Tragic Fall on Denali: Climber Dies After 3,000-Foot Plunge on Mount McKinley

Hiker Alex Chiu fell to his death of approximately 3,000 feet after falling from Mount McKinley, also called Denali, while on the way down Mount McKinley in Alaska, on June 2, 2025. The National Park Service verified that Chiu plummeted from an area called Squirrel Point on the West Buttress route into the Peters Glacier, a terrifying place of the mountain marked with sharp ice formations and a dangerous surface that was not traversable.

Chiu, a previous resident of Seattle who recently re-located to Brooklyn, was on an expedition to ski mountaineering along with two other people when the mishap occurred. From park officials, he was not roped in when he slipped. The two companions, whose identities were withheld, tried to go down where Chiu had fallen but they could not locate him or hear from him. They proceeded to Camp 1 to document the issue and speak of getting help.

The Weather The Weather, The Noble Nature Of The Nature

Because the West Buttress route is famous in the world, most of the climbers summit the Denali, the highest peak of the North, via this route. Nonetheless, the route is not so easy, so it presents lots of challenges as well. In particular, Squirrel Point is a hazardous area, full of icy channels of steepness (seracs) as well as stony ridges with nearly no space for errors.

In the wake of the accident, the weather turned worse and the search and rescue teams had to put the recovery mission on hold quite a while. No action was taken until about a few days later, when the bad weather spared the time for two highly-trained rangers from Talkeetna to land and reach there by helicopter. Then, Chiu’s body was recovered and sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner for further examination.

Recalling Alex Chiu

Alex Chiu was not only a traveler, but he was also a NASA aerospace engineer who had served at the Federal Aviation Administration and before that at Boeing. He taught and mentored the mountaineering community through BoeAlps, the Boeing Employees Alpine Society, spreading his passion for climbing.

Chiu, who had taken a deadly climb just four days earlier, posted a picture of a successful climb of Mount Hood on May 19. In the caption, he talked about his next expedition to Denali, and he cited the poet Langston Hughes by saying:

“Tomorrow I am getting on an airplane to Alaska, in an attempt to climb Mount McKinley because I don’t want to know what happens to a dream deferred.”

The people close to Chiu often define him as a dedicated, hardworking, and motivated personality who had a heart full of dreams and didn’t rest until he achieved them. His social media account was brimming with wonderful pictures of mountaintops and inspiring words about his life as a climber.

Getting the Climbing Community into Reality

The National Park Service has underlined the safety aspect one more time, especially while traveling through exposed areas such as those near Squirrel Point. They suggest that climbers be connected by a rope at all times while in these areas. It has happened before; in 2010 a similar accident was reported apart from this one; an unroped climber was found dead near Squirrel Point.

Also, Chiu’s fatal climbing was the first one this year on Denali and it was the eighth search and rescue operation the mountain conducted for the year. 2014 was the year Denali has been in the news because of its three climbers losing their lives and in 2024 as well. According to the officials, they are of the view that these episodes are a cause for a definite realization of the need for adventurers, regardless of their expertise to be made aware of the potential dangers of high-altitude.

A Dead Dreamer

Denali, the native name of Mount McKinley, has been for a long time a true symbol of unspoiled wilderness and man’s desire to conquer. The story of Alex Chiu symbolizes a passionate and courageous person, a tragic person—the climber was still following hap his dream till the end. The one who feels very sorry about his death is his best friends, co-climbers, and the whole mountain community.

Though people express their condolences, one fact remains unchanged, i.e., Alex Chiu killed himself while he was doing that thing he liked best – overcoming obstacles, living in nature, and trying to reach the top of the world.