A Utah man has been charged with filing a false report to get a helicopter rescue from Denali./NPS, Jeff Pflueger

A Utah man created a fictitious story of climbers battling a medical emergency and needing a helicopter rescue from high atop Denali so he could get airlifted off North America's tallest mountain, according to federal charges.

The circumstances around the charges against Dr. Jason Lance, of Mountain View, were referred to obliquely in early June by Denali National Park mountaineering rangers, who wrote in their blog that "not all the climbers who hope to spend time in the Alaska Range this year are fully prepared for the challenges they'll encounter."

In the blog, they added that the desire to summit the 20,310-foot massif during this year's climbing season at times led to "the dissolution of climbing teams at 14,000 feet, where one or more members of an expedition decide that they are not going any higher, but the remaining member (s) are undeterred. In many cases these determined climbers end up forming loose coalitions with other individuals who they have just met for the first time and who are equally summit-driven. Collectively, this is a recipe for disaster."

In the charges against Lance (attached below), the acting U.S. Attorney for Alaska said the doctor interfered with a Denali National Park climbing ranger who also was a law enforcement officer, failed to follow the ranger's lawful order, and filed a false report in a bid to get rescued by helicopter. 

According to the document, Lance and another climber, identified as A.R., did not start out on the mountain as partners but agreed to climb towards the summit together via the West Buttress route from a camp at 14,200 feet high on Denali on May 24, 2021.

"Between 18,600 and 19,200 feet, just above Denali Pass, Dr. Lance observed A.R. begin to exhibit symptoms of altitude sickness. Concluding that A.R. was too sick to continue climbing, Dr. Lance left A.R. with a separate group of two other climbers (“Team Two”) and continued by himself towards the summit," the filing stated. "The Team Two climbers, recognizing A.R.’s condition, abandoned their own summit attempt to help A.R. descend. At some point prior to leaving A.R., Dr. Lance took possession of A.R.’s Garmin inReach satellite communication device. At some point after separating, Dr. Lance abandoned his solo summit attempt and rejoined A.R. and Team Two, who were by then nearing Denali Pass."

From there the four climbers resumed their descent, with Lance in the lead, according to the filing. Lance and A.R. were not roped together, it continued, and at one point A.R. fell and tumbled 1,000 feet down the mountain.

While Lance triggered the SOS signal on the inReach device, climbers at the 17,200-foot camp also witnessed the fall and reported it to the park, which dispatched a rescue team via helicopter. The rangers reached A.R. within 30 minutes of his fall, and were able to provide life-saving treatment.

After A.R. was airlifted off the mountain, Lance sent a message via the inReach device to the International Emergency Response Coordination Center in which he stated that "[N]o injuries. stuck without equipment after climber fall. Request assisst for evac.”

Shortly before 8 p.m. that night, park dispatch messaged Lance to say that, "[I]f you have a rope available, you need to rope up and start descending." Minutes later, climbers on Team Two messaged another individual that "[A]ccident on upper mtn. Our team is all ok."

At 8:47 p.m., Lance reached out to park dispatch, saying, "[C]ant decend safely. Patients in shock. Early hypothermia.. Cant you land east of pass?”

The charging documents state that "[B]ecause medical shock is a serious and potentially fatal condition, Denali NPS launched a helicopter with rescue supplies to reach the three climbers, but did not at that point inform Dr. Lance it had done so. Shortly after launch, the helicopter turned around because guides at 17,200ft camp reported that the three climbers were descending from Denali Pass under their own power."

As the story unfolded, it turns out that the Team Two members struggled to get Lance to rope up and descend with them after A.R. fell.

"Team Two reported that Dr. Lance insisted the three stay put, told Team Two that the NPS was going to rescue them, and that the NPS was obligated to do so because 'we’ve paid our fee.' After several hours, Team Two convinced Dr. Lance to descend and the three made it to 17,200ft high camp without incident."

The next day, May 25, a Denali mountaineering ranger and law enforcement officer, Chris Erickson, interviewed Lance at his camp at 14,200 feet.

During that interview, Erickson told Lance he would collect all of A.R.'s personal gear, including the inReach device. After Lance refused to hand it over, the ranger "explained that it is his job and official function to safeguard A.R.’s personal property and asked Dr. Lance again for the device. Dr. Lance again responded 'No, I’m not giving it to you,'" the charging documents said.

"Ranger Erickson found Dr. Lance’s behavior suspicious because Dr. Lance and A.R. did not know each other well and had only just teamed up prior to their summit attempt," the documents continue. "Ranger Erickson asked Dr. Lance for the device a third time and informed him that, in addition to being a Mountaineering Ranger, he (Ranger Erickson) was also a Federal Law Enforcement Officer who could be trusted with A.R.’s personal property."

A back-and-forth ensued between the two, with Erickson outside Lance's tent and the doctor inside with the door zipped close. The ranger twice cautioned Lance not to erase any messages from the inReach device. At one point Lance told the ranger that he had "no right to violate his privacy," and that the Park Service should have rescued him the night before, the filing documents stated.

After a few minutes, Lance exited the tent and handed the inReach device to Erickson, though he would not say whether he erased any messages from the device.

"Subsequent investigation and a search warrant to Garmin International revealed that multiple additional messages between Dr. Lance and IERCC had been deleted from the inReach device, including a message sent less than two hours (before Lance reached out to park authorities about "patients in shock") in which Dr. Lance stated there were 'no injuries' and claimed an entirely different reason that helicopter rescue was necessary, namely, because they lacked proper equipment to descend," the documents said.