County search-and-rescue team hoists body from about 13,600 feet
The body of a hiker who went missing on Mount Whitney in California was recovered on Sunday, blanketed in a layer of snow, after a blustery storm delayed retrieval operations for five days, The Guardian reported.
A county search and rescue team was deployed on Sunday, and the hiker was hoisted off the mountain by helicopter from an elevation of about 13,600 feet.
On 19 October, a motel in Lone Pine, a town in California’s Sierra Nevada region, contacted the sheriff’s office about a guest who failed to check out. The man had brought up plans to hike in the area, The Guardian reported.
A vehicle belonging to the climber was found at the base of Mount Whitney the next day.
The California highway patrol deployed a helicopter, which located the deceased man on the Mountaineer’s Route, a steep nine-mile path leading to the mountain’s peak.
A storm system that brought hazardous weather conditions hindered authorities from securing the man’s body once the helicopter had located him.
Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, and The Guardian reports that it has proved a perilous hiking site in recent years.
In the same report, The Guardian cited two other recent deaths: Kalem Peter Kazarian, a 52-year-old Fresno builder who died while hiking in October, and Joseph Brambila, a 21-year-old solo hiker celebrating his birthday who was missing for weeks last December before he was found dead.
The Inyo county sheriff’s office said in a Monday statement that the hiker had not been publicly identified, and it extended its condolences to the man’s loved ones and family.