New Jersey Man Dies at 19,700 Feet on Alaska's Mt. Denali, North America's Highest Mountain Peak

Lance King/Getty Denali National Park

A New Jersey man has become the third person to die in the last month while attempting to summit Mount Denali in Alaska, officials said.

Fernando Birman, 48, of Stockton, was climbing the tallest peak in North America on Friday when he collapsed at 19,700 feet, according to a news release from the National Park Service.

Birman's mountain guides "immediately" began CPR around 5:45 p.m. local time, but the climber was pronounced dead at the scene, the service said.

"The cause of death is unknown," NPS officials added, "but consistent with sudden cardiac arrest."

The victim's body was transferred to the State of Alaska medical examiner that same night following a body recovery mission "using a short-haul basket" on a 19,500-foot plateau known as the Football Field.

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Mike Powell/Getty Denali National Park

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Birman is the third person to die in 2022 while attempting to reach the top of Mount Denali. Two other men — one from Austria and another from Japan — died while attempting the same feat this year.

On May 6, national park officials confirmed the death of 35-year-old Matthias Rimml, who was found dead after going missing during his climb. Park officials said the Austrian professional mountain guide was the first registered climber to try and reach the summit of Mount Denali this year.

"Rimml likely fell on the steep traverse between Denali Pass at 18,200 feet and the 17,200-foot plateau, a notoriously treacherous stretch of the West Buttress route," the agency said in a news release at the time.

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Two weeks later, a 43-year-old climber from Kanagawa, Japan "fell through a weak ice bridge" near his team's camp at approximately 8,000 feet "on the southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier," the NPS said in a news release. The victim was "un-roped from his teammates" when the fall occurred.

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It takes around two weeks to climb and reach the summit of Mount Denali, according to the NPS website. The agency has warned climbers that the mountain "is a very serious undertaking and should be treated as such."

"Because glacier travel is such a huge component of climbing Denali, it is imperative to your safety and survival that your team is skilled with proper glacier travel, route finding, and crevasse rescue procedures," their site says.

"Denali is an expedition," officials add, "meaning that the mountain is almost always a multi-week endeavor, which is very different than an overnight or even multi-day climb."

Additionally, all team members are encouraged to have previous experience in the "expedition environment" of climbing.