ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – A climber died in his tent shortly after reaching the summit of Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak, the National Park Service said on Saturday.

Brian Young, 52, of Kodiak, Alaska, was pronounced dead Friday at the mountain’s high camp at the 17,200-foot level. Young had just completed a 20-hour trek up to the peak’s 20,320-foot summit and back and was back in camp to sleep when he suddenly stopped breathing, the Park Service said.

Young’s tent mates summoned help from mountaineering rangers stationed at the camp, who tried to resuscitate him, the Park Service said. The apparent cause of death was cardiac arrest, the Park Service said.

The body will be recovered when weather conditions allow, the Park Service said.

The 17,200-foot high camp is the commonly used resting spot for climbers launching their final assault on the summit or returning from there.

It was the fifth climber death this season on McKinley, North America’s tallest peak, and the eighth climber death this season in Denali National Park. Among those killed was a commercial guide leading an expedition on the mountain and climbers from Japan, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere.

The deadliest year for climbers in the park was 1992, when 13 perished, including 11 on McKinley.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – More than 24,000 pages of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s emails show her getting to grips with mundane state issues, feuding with the media and dealing with her sudden rise to national prominence, but do not appear to contain any damaging material.

Alaska released the correspondence on Friday two and a half years after news organizations requested it under state open-records laws.

The initial request to see Palin’s correspondence — much of it on private Yahoo email accounts — was made in 2008 shortly after Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

Palin was then the subject of a legislative probe into accusations that she had abused her power as governor to seek revenge against a state trooper who had been married to her sister.

The emails, some heavily redacted to remove private or privileged information, come from the first two years of Palin’s governorship, from December 2006 to September 2008.

About 2,400 pages were withheld because state attorneys deemed them to contain privileged information. News organizations’ requests to see emails up to Palin’s resignation as governor in July 2009 are still pending.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and cable news channel MSNBC worked all day Friday and overnight to scan the emails and post them online, inviting public response.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The state of Alaska Friday released more than 24,000 pages of former Governor Sarah Palin’s emails, shedding some light on how the possible Republican presidential contender conducted business.

The printed emails to and from Palin, who abruptly quit as governor of the oil-rich state nearly two years ago, were made available to those willing to pay $725 for copies and hundreds of dollars more in delivery fees.

Six hours later, almost one quarter of the emails had been scanned and posted online by various media websites.

Most of the emails so far reviewed concern fairly dry day-to-day workings of the governor’s office, punctuated by the folksy language she has become known for: “You bet!”

Much of the correspondence comes from one of Palin’s Yahoo accounts — gov.sarah@yahoo.com — which she often used from her BlackBerry. Some of the emails posted online include:

* A request to aides to set up a meeting with John McCain’s team as he campaigned to become the Republican presidential candidate, several months before he chose Palin as his running mate. “Is it possible to get hooked up (maybe by Nick Ayers?) with someone from the McCain campaign?” Palin wrote. “I want to talk to McCain’s people about his ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and resources positions.”

* Palin’s initial tentative support for Mike Huckabee in the 2008 Republican primaries: “He called. Very cool. Unless McCain calls, Huck’s a good pick for me, just fyi. He says he’s all for gasline and anwr- very cool,” Palin wrote.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 10 (Reuters) – The state of Alaska will release on Friday copies of some of former governor Sarah Palin’s emails, a move that could shed new light on how the possible Republican U.S. presidential contender conducted business in office.

More than 24,000 pages of printed emails to and from Palin, who abruptly quit as governor of the oil-rich state nearly two years ago, will be available to those willing to pay $725 for copies and hundreds of dollars more in delivery fees.

The six cartons of documents will include emails from Palin’s official gubernatorial account as well as two private Yahoo accounts she used to conduct state business, a practice that critics said circumvented Alaska’s open-records law.

Dozens of reporters have descended on the state capital Juneau to get the earliest access to the documents. The New York Times and Washington Post are planning to scan and post the e-mails on their websites, and are asking readers to comment on the contents.

The MSNBC cable TV network is working with data research firm Crivella West to produce a searchable database online, which is expected to be completed by late on Friday.

About 2,400 pages are being withheld because state attorneys have deemed them to contain privileged information. The emails that are being released will also be redacted to keep private information confidential.

Journalists and Alaska political activist Andree McLeod initially requested release of the emails under state public records laws in 2008, shortly after Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Public health officials warned Alaskans to avoid eating shellfish they harvest from the southeastern tip of the state after high concentrations of a poison than can kill humans was found.

State officials said scientists monitoring algae blooms near Ketchikan discovered some of the world’s highest-ever recorded levels of toxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning — a potentially fatal ailment that can paralyze vital organs.

The most poisonous shellfish discovered were baby mussels at a dock in Ketchikan with toxin levels of more than 30,000 micrograms per hundred grams of shellfish meat. This is well over the 80-microgram level considered toxic, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has warned.

Those levels are so high that a single mussel could kill several people, scientists at the University of Alaska Southeast said in a statement on Thursday.

In other types of shellfish, members of the multi-agency Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom monitoring program found toxin levels ranging from 1,100 to 5,000 micrograms per gram of shellfish meat, the department said.

State officials have posted warnings on the region’s beaches, docks, stores and other public places, and police have issued warnings on marine radios, the department said.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins are absorbed by certain shellfish from algae. Symptoms of poisoning start with tingling and numbness in the mouth, and can spread through the body.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Alaska will release on Friday copies of some of former governor Sarah Palin’s emails, a move that could shed new light on how the possible Republican presidential contender conducted business in office.

More than 24,000 pages of printed emails to and from Palin, who abruptly quit as governor of the oil-rich state nearly two years ago, will be available to those willing to pay $725 for copies and hundreds of dollars more in delivery fees.

The six cartons of documents will include emails from Palin’s official gubernatorial account as well as two private Yahoo accounts she used to conduct state business, a practice that critics said circumvented Alaska’s open-records law.

About 2,400 pages are being withheld because state attorneys have deemed them to contain privileged information. The emails that are being released will also be redacted to keep private information confidential.

Journalists and Alaska political activist Andree McLeod initially requested release of the emails under state public records laws in the fall of 2008, shortly after Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

At that time, Palin was the subject of a legislative probe into accusations that she abused her power as governor to seek revenge against a state trooper who had been married to her sister.

Some critics say the emails will show that Palin exhibited a pattern of using state resources for personal gain, the settling of scores with perceived enemies and unprofessional conduct in general.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – All residents near an expanding wildfire near Fairbanks have fled, making way for firefighters to combat the blaze, officials said on Wednesday.

Residents heeded an advisory issued this week recommending that people evacuate until the 17,624-acre Hastings Fire is better controlled, a state fire information officer said.

As of late Tuesday, “everybody had left,” said Tacy Skinner, a spokeswoman for the wildfire incident command. “We didn’t find anybody.”

She said no one had been ordered to evacuate.

The fire, ignited by a Memorial Day lightning strike and located 15 miles northwest of Fairbanks, grew by 5,000 acres overnight after a significant shift in winds, Skinner said.

A total of 830 firefighters, some ferrying to the site by aircraft and some using boats on the Chatanika River, were battling the blaze on Wednesday.

The fire is expected to continue to grow, though 8 percent of the perimeter is considered contained, officials said.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Three climbers in distress have been plucked from near the peak of Mount McKinley in separate helicopter rescues, the National Park Service said on Tuesday.

The climbers, two Japanese and a Serb, were each discovered on Monday night by park rangers descending from McKinley’s 20,320-foot summit, officials said.

The first climber, 37-year-old Zeljko Dulic of Serbia, was spotted staggering near the 19,300-foot level. When patrollers reached him, he collapsed, the Park Service said.

He was placed into a special “screamer suit” safety harness attached to a line dangling from a helicopter and carried off to a lower elevation, the Park Service said.

While patrollers were tending to Dulic, 22-year-old Sho Tamagawa of Japan approached them and collapsed, the Park Service said, and was carried down the mountain in a second short-haul helicopter flight.

Patrollers found the third climber, 20-year-old Masaaki Kobayasi of Japan, incapacitated and semi-conscious at the 18,700-foot level, the Park Service said. He was moved in the third short-haul flight of the night.

“It all, in the scheme of things, happened quite quickly,” said Maureen McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Denali National Park, site of McKinley.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Authorities on Monday were investigating a series of suspicious deaths to marine mammals, one found with a bullet in it’s skull, near a small town in southeast Alaska.

Two dead Steller sea lions and three dead harbor seals have been found near Skagway, Alaska, about 90 miles north of Juneau, over the past five months, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service spokeswoman said.

“One was found floating and the others washed ashore and were found by locals walking the beach,” NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.

Four of the animals had head trauma, and one of them, a harbor seal, had a bullet lodged in its skull, she said. Except for the seal that was shot, officials are unsure of causes of death, Speegle said.

One of the dead sea lions was a pregnant female, she said.

NOAA Fisheries has issued a plea to the public for information about the animals, asking citizens to call the agency’s law-enforcement hotline.

Steller sea lions and harbor seals are protected species under federal law.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Two climbers were killed and two others critically injured when the roped group fell at a pass high on Mount McKinley, the National Park Service said on Thursday.

The fall occurred shortly before midnight Wednesday night at Denali Pass, a wind-swept area near the mountain’s 18,000-foot level where climbers make a tricky traverse to the 20,320-foot summit.

Climbers resting at the mountain’s 17,200-foot high camp saw the four roped individuals fall, the Park Service said. Air National Guard rescuers who were on an unrelated expedition on McKinley brought the injured climbers to high camp for overnight medical care, the Park Service said.

The injured climbers were flown off the mountain Thursday morning to area hospitals, the Park Service said. Names and nationalities were being withheld pending family notification.

The accident occurred near the spot where an unroped Italian climber fell to his death last week and brings this season’s Denali National Park climbing death toll to seven. Four of the climbers died on McKinley, North America’s tallest peak, and the others died in nearby Alaska Range sites.

“It does certainly feel like we’ve had a bad year so far. One fatality is too many,” said Maureen McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for Denali National Park. “Certainly, seven total at this point in time is not how we want to start the season.”

Denali Pass, site of fatal falls in the past, is considered one of the risky parts of the standard route up McKinley, with slopes of 35 to 45 degrees, McLaughlin said.