Two Utahns Stranded on Denali Airlifted To Safety After Being Stranded For Days
May 12, 2019, 10:16 PM | Updated: May 13, 2019, 5:56 am
UPDATE: The men were airlifted to safety late Sunday night.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Two Utah men are in need of rescue after one of them was injured on the highest peak in North America.
Daniel Cooper and Ephraim Roberts were attempting to summit Denali in Alaska, which was formerly known as Mt. McKinley, but they ran into some trouble on their way down.
On Wednesday, Roberts slipped and fell off a 20-foot cliff, fracturing all the ribs on his left side.
Martha Cooper, Daniel’s mother, spoke about her son on Sunday.
“He’s very, very adventurous but they had no plan ever that this would happen,” she said. “It’s been days. They’ve been isolated up there for five days now.”
She says Cooper and Roberts are stuck at about 13,000 feet elevation and that the closest rangers were at 11,000 feet.
This is the second time Cooper and Roberts attempted to summit Denali. The first time was four years ago. They wanted to try it again this year but the weather didn’t cooperate.
“The weather right there at the summit is upwards of negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit so it’s extremely cold and brutal,” said Joel Cooper, Daniel’s brother.
After Roberts’ fell, Cooper was able to get to him and stabilize him. He also set up a camp and radioed for help.
“These are tough guys,” said Joel Cooper. “My brother would not have sent out an S.O.S. if it wasn’t very serious.”
Rangers finally got to the men Saturday but it will take a helicopter to get them down. Once again, the weather is not cooperating.
“They need 20 feet of visibility and low wind and the weather is not looking good,” said Joel Cooper.
Rangers are watching the weather which so far, continues to show snow and wind over the next few days.
Martha says she spoke with Daniel yesterday and despite the weather, she has high hopes that both men will make it out just fine.
“When we finally made contact again and could hear what was going on, I thought, okay we can live through this. They’re going to live through it. We’re going to live through it,” she said.
A GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/eph039s-path-from-denali-to-recovery
