The pair were tethered together descending just 1,000 feet from the 20,320-foot summit when something went wrong.
"At 19,000, one of them fell apparently and took the other one with him," said Daryl Miller, Park Ranger at Denali National Park in Alaska. He said other rangers witnessed the tragedy from below.
"They just saw two people tumbling out of control from 19,000 on the west buttress," said Miller.
Massey was taken back to a ranger tent for treatment but never regained consciousness. He died 12 hours later Friday morning.
Mizuki Takahashi, 36, of Lake Forest Park, Washington, was pronounced dead Thursday night.
Massey's father, Stan Massey, Jr., of Centennial, sent us some pictures of Brian. He says Brian graduated from Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora in 1997 and that Brian lived in Aurora before leaving for college. He was living in North Bend, Washington at the time of his death. Stan Massey says Brian got married in September 2006.
Park rangers at the Denali National Park and Reserve are not sure what caused the fall. However, Miller said windmay be a big factor.
"Any wind at 10-below or zero is a lot of wind," Miller said. "They may have had more ice than snow and the slope was probably somewhere between 40-and-45 degrees in steepness."
Miller saidTakahashi had acted as a guide on a few trips up Mount Rainier and did a solo climb of Mount Hunter in Denali National Park last summer.
Massey had climbed mountains in Washington and British Columbia for years after conquering many of Colorado's peaks with his father.
In a statement, Massey's family said "Brian passed away doing what he loved. God grant that we all do likewise."
Massey had just gotten married in September and worked as a firefighter for the Kent Fire Department near Seattle for two years.
"There is no way to prepare for someone dying in a recreational activity off-duty," Capt. Kyle Ohashi, a spokesperson for the Kent Fire Department said. "When we hear about things like that, it hits us hard because there is no way to prepare yourself to hear that kind of news."
Miller said park rangers will take nearly three weeks to wrap up the investigation into what went wrong. He said at 19,000 feet anything could've caused the fall.
"A little mistake was automatically a big mistake," Miller said.
