Each year more than a thousand climbers head for the summit of Mount McKinley, North America's highest peak. Also known as Denali, the frigid massif towers 20,320 feet (6,194 meters) above the Alaska Range.
High altitude, avalanche risk, and the mountains' notoriously fickle weather pose constant threats to climbers attempting the mountain.
While National Park Service rangers patrol the mountain and stand at the ready to rescue climbers in peril, they couldn't do their job as effectively without the help of a group of highly skilled mountaineers known as the Volunteers in Parks (VIPs).
Since 1979, dozens of the volunteer climbers and medical professionals have donated a month of their time each year to make the Denali experience as safe as possible for other climbers. In the process, they endure foul weather, discomfort, and outright danger.
"Everyone who volunteers wants to help … [and] is willing to set aside their own safety to help," said Jennifer Dow, an Alaska-based doctor and volunteer medical director for Denali National Park and Preserve.
The highly skilled volunteers allow the National Park Service to maintain a permanent presence on the mountain's popular West Buttress route during the peak climbing season of May 1 to July 15.
While VIPs stand at the ready for their most high-profile and dangerous role—rescue—such efforts are by no means guaranteed.
"One thing we always talk about in briefings is that [a climber's] emergency may not be our emergency," said Daryl Miller, a Denali National Park Service district ranger, who notes that the decision of whether to launch a rescue effort lies at the discretion of park rangers.
"We have to justify the risk," Miller said, noting that the Park Service advises climbers, "if you have a problem we may not come. The weather or the terrain you're in may not be something that we can handle because of the risk."
More Than Dedication
Risk is ever-present in the work performed by Denali's rangers and volunteers, but accepting danger isn't the only qualification for the job.
To make the cut one needs specialized skills, including emergency medicine, ice climbing, crevasse rescue, winter camping, glacier travel, high-angle rope rescue, and helicopter short-haul, a quick transport method in which rescuers in waist harnesses dangle from moving helicopters by rope.
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