A Canadian climber fell to his death in Washington state’s Mount Rainier National Park earlier this week, officials said Thursday.
Chun Hui Zhang, 52, died Monday while abseiling the Disappointment Cleaver route on Mount Rainier, park officials said in a news release.
It is the most popular route to reach the summit, accounting for 75 percent of all attempts, according to the National Park Service.
After several unsuccessful attempts to locate the body, rangers from the National Park Service accessed the area where Zhang fell using a helicopter. His body was recovered a day after witnesses reported the fall.
The climber, who is from Surrey, British Columbia, was on a private, recreational climb with friends, officials said.
Mount Rainier is an active volcano standing 14,410 feet above sea level, known as the glaciated peak in the Lower 48 states.
The death follows several other climbing deaths reported this summer in national parks.
Last month, three people were reported dead while climbing mountains in Montana’s Glacier National Park, according to park officials.
And in June, a 48-year-old climber died while climbing Mount Denali in Alaska, the highest mountain in North America.
Two other climbers died in May in Denali National Park, which consists of six million acres of wilderness.
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