• Grizzly mauls hiker to death at Denali National Park; bear shot

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Updated at 11:05 p.m. ET: A backpacker hiking inside Denali National Park was killed by a grizzly bear after a violent struggle, the park said in a statement Saturday. The death was the first fatal bear mauling inside the huge park in Alaska.

    Rangers discovered the body after three dayhikers found a backpack, as well as torn clothing and blood, along the Toklat River on Friday afternoon, the park stated.

    The rangers arrived at the site Friday night but were unable to immediately recover the remains due to the presence of at least one bear in the area and the approaching darkness.

    Reuters reported that Denali park Superintendent Paul Anderson said the bear suspected of attacking the man on Friday afternoon, a large male grizzly, was found near the body and was shot from a helicopter Saturday afternoon.

    Reuters said officials hoped to recover the man's body Saturday evening and were trying to contact his family.

    Pete Webster, chief ranger for the park, told Reuters that investigators will try to confirm that the dead grizzly was to blame by examining its stomach contents, analyzing bear scat and conducting a DNA analysis.

    There also may be photographic clues. Reuters reports:

    A camera found near the backpack showed that the hiker had photographed the bear for more than eight minutes and appeared to have come within 50 yards of the animal before he was attacked, Anderson said.

    The photographs do not show the attack, Anderson said. "They show the bear grazing in the willows and not acting aggressive in any form or manner during that period of time," he said.

    Park rules require people to stay a quarter-mile away from bears and to immediately back away at a slow pace if they find themselves to be closer.

    All hiking in the area was banned until further notice. 

    The park estimates that some 12 grizzlies have been residing in the area this summer.

    Denali in June saw the tragic deaths of four Japanese climbers swept up by an avalanche on Mount McKinley.

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  • Search ends for four Japanese climbers on Mount McKinley

     

    National Park Service / AP

    Crews search for four Japanese climbers on Alaska's Mount McKinley on Saturday.

    By Msnbc.com staff and wire services

    Crews have suspended efforts to recover the bodies of four Japanese climbers killed in an avalanche on Alaska's Mount McKinley, the National Park Service said Sunday.

    A two-day ground search of the debris path from the avalanche turned up clues Saturday indicating the likely location of four deceased climbers, a Denali National Park spokeswoman said.

    A mountaineering ranger lowered himself into the same crevasse that the party's one survivor fell into. The ranger probed through avalanche debris 100 feet beneath the glacier's surface and found a broken rope that matched that of the Japanese team. He began to dig further, but encountered heavily compacted ice and snow debris.

    NBC's Veronica de la Cruz reports.

    "Due to the danger of ice fall within the crevasse, it was decided to permanently suspend the recovery efforts," the park service said in a press release.  

    Rangers also now say that the avalanche, which happened at approximately 11,800 feet on the West Buttress, occurred early Wednesday morning, not Thursday. The lone survivor, 69-year-old Hitoshi Ogi, reached a base camp to report the avalanche Thursday afternoon. He suffered only a minor hand injury.

    The climbers were part of a five-member Miyagi Workers Alpine Federation expedition. All were from the Miyagi Prefecture in Japan, the park service said.

    Those killed were identified as Yoshiaki Kato, 64; Masako Suda, 50; Michiko Suzuki, 56; and Tamao Suzuki, 63.

    National Park Service / Reuters

    A rescue worker and dog search the debris field from the deadly avalanche.

    The climbers -- three men and two women -- were descending and roped together at the time of the accident. Ogi was the last person on the rope, and thus was the closest to the surface when the team fell into the crevasse, said park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin.

    Mount McKinley, also referred to as Denali, is the tallest peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,320 feet. The McKinley climbing season runs from late April until early July. Typically, 1,200 to 1,300 people attempt the peak each season.

    There have six climbing fatalities on McKinley this season, according to the park service. Since 1932, a total of 120 climbers have perished on the mountain, 12 due to avalanches. This week's four avalanche fatalities were the first to occur on the popular West Buttress route.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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  • 'Tripawed' the three-pawed bear returns to Denali National Park

    Pat Owen / National Park Service

    This three-pawed bear was first spotted in Alaska's Denali National Park last year.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    A three-pawed grizzly bear affectionately known as "Tripawed" is back in public view at Alaska's Denali National Park, after it was first spotted last year with a bloody stump where its right front foot had been.


    "He's got a really funny gait," park biologist Pat Owen told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "He kind of hops around."

    At least so far, the bear doesn't seem to be a threat to park visitors. "It does not seem interested in camper food," park spokeswoman Kris Fister told msnbc.com. "It has only been observed doing normal bear things, i.e. digging for roots, etc."

    Owen said it's not clear how the bear lost its paw, but the wound appears to have completely healed.

    "It was a really clean cut, which leads part of me to believe it might not be a trap accident," she said. "We have no idea what happened."

    The bear "showed up two weeks ago along the (park) highway," Owen added. "He's been very visible. A lot of people have seen him already."

    The park considered euthanizing Tripawed last year, but Owen contacted some of her peers and was told bears missing appendages isn't that uncommon, so he was left alone.

    Last weekend, the bear showed up at a vacant campground but officials won't be doing anything just yet to move him out.

    "For now we'll let him do his thing and see what happens," Owen said. "He seems to get along just fine."

    Tourist season officially begins on May 20, and if the bear is still around then the park will probably put up signs about the bear to avoid having to answer the same questions over and over, Owen said.

    As for tracking the bear, Owen said "he’s pretty identifiable. I don’t think we need a radio collar to keep track of him."

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