Bodies recovered on Mount Whitney after 2 California hikers go missing; victims were couple

Two climbers died after going missing while hiking on Mount Whitney, California’s highest peak, authorities confirmed to The Sacramento Bee.

The hikers were identified by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office as Andrew Niziol, 28, a resident of South Lake Tahoe, and Patty Bolan, who had just completed her doctoral studies in physics at UC Davis. Niziol and Bolan, who appeared to be dating, were outdoor enthusiasts and had taken a long-term hiking trip around the state.

Six days before their Mount Whitney trip, the couple hiked and snowboarded around Mount Shasta but were unable to summit the Northern California peak due to high winds, according to social media posts.

Zachary Edwards, a flight officer and paramedic with the California Highway Patrol’s Inland Division Air Operations, responded to the area Wednesday after the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office and its search-and-rescue team requested help to locate the two missing hikers.

Andrew Niziol and Patty Bolan pose for a photo at Mount Shasta in an image posted to Instagram on Saturday, May 4, 2024. The couple’s bodies were found five days later on the north face of Mount Whitney after the couple went missing. Instagram

Under clear and fair conditions, Edwards and volunteers with the Inyo County search and rescue team located two “fall victims” on the north face of Mount Whitney, at an elevation of 13,200 feet, Edwards said. The highest peak of the landmark, the tallest mountain in the continental United States, is 14,494, inside Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

It was unclear what led to the hikers’ deaths. The Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, its all-volunteer search-and rescue team and the National Park Service did not respond Thursday morning to requests for comment.

Two detectives from the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office were responding Thursday to Lone Pine in Inyo to retrieve the bodies, said Sgt. Will Perryman, a spokesman for the Tulare County Coroner’s Office, who confirmed the deaths. He didn’t have more information about the circumstances surrounding the hiker’s death but said Tulare examiners would be taking over the case.

The Inyo County search-and-rescue team noted May 2 on social media that winter conditions in the High Sierras weren’t quite over as a storm raked across California over that weekend. At the time, authorities said the snow had buried trails, which would have forced hikers to rely on their instincts as they trekked to the summit.

A view of the mountain Thursday showed hints of snow but otherwise normal spring conditions on the rugged terrain.

Conditions on the mountain on Tuesday were “typical” for May and were “maybe a little bit cooler than normal (but) pretty average,” said Chris Outler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Las Vegas office.

He said temperatures at the 10,000-foot level were in the 50s during the day and had bottomed out to 23 degrees overnight. There was “not especially strong winds” near the summit after the couple when missing, he said.

Mount Whitney’s five main trails are among the most popular and accessible for hikers and backpackers, offering breathtaking views of the Sierra Nevada, as well as the San Joaquin and Owens valleys. Depending on the conditions and route chosen, hiking to the summit is not technical but requires some training.

One of the primary challenges of climbing Mount Whitney is the rapid gain in altitude, which lowers the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream. Commonly called altitude sickness, the condition can cause nausea, dizziness and fatigue.

The last death on Mount Whitney occurred in October when a solo hiker fell about 1,000 feet off a cliff known as “The Notch.”

Tom Gerbier, 38, a French national and pilot for Air France was reported missing after he failed to appear for his flight.

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