John Soderstrom, known as Johnny, was 26 when he disappeared on February 15, 2005, while attempting a first-ever winter ascent of Mount Huntington in Denali National Park and Preserve. An experienced mountain guide and carpenter from Trapper Creek, he and a climbing partner had traveled into the Alaska Range by snowmachine and skis beginning February 1. On the morning he vanished, between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m., Johnny was leading at about 8,000 feet and went out of his partner’s sight. The partner later found evidence of an avalanche and began probing the debris before calling for help by satellite phone.

An airborne search was mounted but hampered by heavy snow and poor visibility; by the time crews could survey the scene more than 30 hours had passed. The avalanche debris was roughly smaller than a football field and appeared to have funneled into a crevasse. Ground search was suspended because of high avalanche hazard, and the National Park Service declared Johnny presumed dead. He was a well-respected climber in the Trapper Creek and Talkeetna communities, and a memorial scholarship was created in his name to fund avalanche education.

Did anyone in the climbing community have additional observations about that route or conditions that February?