Story at a glance
- A Utah doctor in May called in a false report of hypothermia to park rangers to get a helicopter ride down Mount Denali, North America’s highest peak.
- He reportedly told his travel companions that the National Parks Service was obligated to rescue them because they had already “paid their fee” to climb the mountain.
- The American Alpine Institute has described Denali as a “very windy and inhospitable place,” and temperatures at 17,200 feet or higher often drop below -30 degrees Fahrenheit.
A Utah doctor is facing three criminal charges after allegedly calling in a false report of hypothermia to get a helicopter ride down North America’s tallest peak.
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Jason Lance, 47, reportedly called for help in May after climbing more than 17,000 feet up Mount Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley, in Alaska.
Lance told park rangers that he and two people he was traveling with couldn’t descend safely because of “early hypothermia” and “shock,” and asked for a helicopter to retrieve them, according to a complaint obtained by the Daily Beast.
Because medical shock is a serious and potentially fatal condition, a helicopter was launched by the Denali National Park Service without alerting Lance, but it quickly turned around because guides informed the rescue crew that the climbers were descending “under their own power,” according to the complaint.
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Neither one of Lance’s travel companions had “suffered from any form of medical shock or hypothermia at any point during their ascent or descent,” according to the complaint.
The two climbers told rangers that they had spent hours trying to convince Lance to descend, according to the complaint, which was filed this week in Fairbanks, Alaska federal court. Lance insisted the three stay put, telling the other climbers that the National Park Service was obligated to rescue them because “we’ve paid our fee,” according to the complaint.
Lance and his climbing partners had set out from Denali’s Camp 3, at 14,200 feet, on the day of the incident and planned to reach the top at more than 20,000 feet.
The American Alpine Institute has described Denali as a “very windy and inhospitable place,” and “more than one team has been stuck at 14 [thousand feet] for a week waiting for the wind and weather to abate higher on the mountain.” At 17,200 feet, or “High Camp,” winds in excess of 70 mph are “quite common” and temperatures routinely drop below -30 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Rescue is not guaranteed, and your emergency plan should not be contingent upon the NPS,” according to a NPS blog post. “Rescuer safety will always be our first priority, and weather or lack of resources often preclude us from coming to help.”
Rescue crews were initially called by Lance when one of his companions suffered a fall. He was airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage in critical condition.
Later, Lance used a Garmin satellite phone to call rangers again, this time for himself and the other climbers. The actual reason he asked for help was because he did not have the necessary equipment to descend, a subpoena of the device revealed.
He’s now facing three misdemeanor counts: Interference with a government employee, violating a lawful order, and making a false report.
“The allegations are baseless. Some of the information in it is inaccurate. There’s also other stuff that went on that’s not mentioned. I’m appalled, really,” Lance told the Daily Beast. He’s set to appear before a judge via Zoom on Nov. 29.
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