A New Jersey man died Friday night while trying to climb the Denali Peak in Alaska, the highest peak in North America.
48-year-old climber Fernando Birman of Stockton, New Jersey collapsed around 5:45 p.m. while trying to climb the mountain, according to the National Park Service.
Mountain guides immediately started CPR, but were unable to save it. Birman never recovered his pulse and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Birman was not far from reaching the summit before his untimely death: it collapsed at 19,700 feet and the summit of Denali stretches to 20,310 feet.
The National Park Service said its cause of death is unknown, but it supports a sudden cardiac arrest.
Birman’s guides assisted in the effort to recover his body from a 19,500-foot plateau known as the Football Field with a short-range basket.
His body was taken to the Alaska coroner on Friday night for a complete autopsy.
Alaska’s Denali is the highest peak in North America.AP / Mark Thiessen
The New Jersey man is the third climber to die this year in the national park.
Last month, a 43-year-old Japanese climber was presumed dead in May when he fell down an ice bridge into a crevice where he was buried in snow and ice.
On May 6, the body of a 35-year-old Australian climber was found on a notoriously treacherous stretch of Denali Pass, where 12 more people have died over the years, according to the National Park Service. Nothing has been known since April 30.
It usually takes several weeks to reach the summit of Denali, and the climb is only recommended for experts with experience in glacier travel, expedition environments, and winter camping in arctic conditions, advises the Nation Park Service.