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Newton doctor dies while climbing Mount McKinley

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 12, 2009 04:27 PM

(National Park Service)

A National Park Service diagram shows the Messner Couloir and other features of the mountain.

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A Newton doctor and his climbing partner who were scaling Alaska's Mount McKinley died Thursday after falling several thousand feet, the National Park Service said.

Dr. John Mislow, 39, of Newton, and Dr. Andrew Swanson, 36, of Minneapolis, who were roped together, fell shortly before 2 p.m., the park service said in a statement.

The service said many facts about the accident remained unknown, including the exact location where the men intially fell and whether they were ascending or descending at the time.

Another climbing team did observe them falling between 16,500 feet on the Messner Couloir and its base at 14,500 feet. The Messner Couloir is an hourglass-shaped snow gully with a 40- to 50-degree snow and ice slope that is sometimes used by advanced skiers but is rarely descended or ascended on foot, the service said.

"Some people come down that couloir, but most typically on skis, not typically on foot, like they appear to have been at that time" said Maureen McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Denali National Park, where the mountain is located.

Three skiers in the area were the first to get to the climbers. A team of volunteer rangers, including an emergency room nurse and two medics, quickly arrived and confirmed the two men had died, the service said.

The service said both men were experienced mountaineers. The Denali National Park presented the two men with the Denali Pro Award in 2000, recognizing their achievements in safety, self-sufficiency and assisting fellow mountaineers.

Mislow was a neurosurgery resident at Brigham and Women's, who had graduated from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago in 2004, according to the state Board of Registration in Medicine.