Hiker dead, researcher missing after falling into a stream on Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Glacier and Mendenhall Lake, shown here on Aug. 30, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska, are part of a recreation area that is popular with tourists and residents. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

JUNEAU, Alaska — A researcher from Italy is missing after falling into a stream on Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier -- after the body of another man, a hiker from Arizona, was found earlier this week off a trail near the glacier, authorities said.

According to the state Department of Public Safety, Alaska Wildlife Troopers received a report Tuesday that a man had gone missing after falling into a stream on the glacier and being pushed by the water into a small, vertical shaft in the ice known as a moulin. The man, whose name was not immediately released, was with two other people when he fell. He was conducting research on the glacier at the time, department spokesperson Tess Williams said by email Wednesday.

A local ice rescue team responded but found the roughly 2-foot (0.6-metre) wide hole was filled with rushing water and determined that efforts to find the man would be too dangerous, the Department of Public Safety said.

The glacier -- part of the vast Juneau Icefield -- is a popular destination for residents and cruise ship passengers, though many tourists view it from across Mendenhall Lake, within a more developed area of the Mendenhall Glacier recreation area that includes a visitor center. The glacier is about 13 miles (20.9 kilometres) from downtown Juneau.

Also this week, on Monday, searchers using cellphone location data found the body of Thomas Casey, 69, off a trail near the glacier, according to the department. Casey had last been seen on Saturday morning and was believed to have died from injuries from a fall. Juneau police had said that Casey was in the city for the summer.

In July, a Kentucky woman visiting Juneau on a cruise ship was found dead on the mountains near downtown after she didn’t return from a hike.