, during the Fourth of July Parade in Wasilla

DENALI NATIONAL PARK -- Denali National Park and Preserve announced Friday, June 30, that after reviewing regulations, the Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska State Medical Examiner decided that the recently surfaced body of deceased climber Gary Cole will remain on Mount McKinley, in accordance with the wishes of Cole's family.

Cole died of pulmonary edema during a 1969 expedition on Mount McKinley. He was identified by a watch with a calendar dated June 1969 and by a wedding band that matched a description provided by the climber's widow.

According to the National Park Service, a climbing party discovered Cole's well-preserved remains on June 25, at a camp located 17,200 feet up the mountain on the West Buttress route. Ranger Gordy Kito and his volunteer patrol members exhumed the frozen body on Monday June 28and ranger crews lowered the body the following afternoon to the ranger camp at the mountain's 14,200-foot elevation.

Cole was 32 years old when he died, a member of a six-man expedition that began an ascent of the 20,320-foot-high mountain -- North America's highest peak -- on June 6, 1969. According to the expedition log, Cole started showing signs of illness on June 17, 1969. His teammates assisted him with oxygen and various medications, but supplies were limited and Cole ultimately succumbed to pulmonary edema. His teammates buried Cole at the high camp, which they said had been his wish.

Leaving the body in its original burial site at the 17,200-foot-elevation camp was considered infeasible by park staff. They cited the fact that more than 1,000 climbers use the approximately one-acre camp area each season, as compared to fewer than 50 climbers who might have reached the camp in 1969. Park staff also said the high altitude of the extremely windy high camp results in minimal snowfall each year, and relatively shallow snow depth overall.

Typically the National Park Service recovers all bodies left on the mountain, assuming the recovery can be accomplished safely, but ranger staff members buried Cole's remains, Thursday at the 14,200-foot plateau on Mount McKinley.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.