Bodies recovered on Mt. 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, 29, 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.

Late Thursday, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office announced the recovery in a social media post, saying its all-volunteer search-and-rescue team began looking for the couple about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday after they were reported missing.

The Sheriff’s Office was notified of the missing couple by a friend who appeared to be climbing with Niziol and Bolan. Ethan Michael Cannaert wrote on social media the trio began their descent about 11 a.m. when they were separated down the “final 400 feet.”

Cannaert noted he waited for duo at the “Notch” where they had stashed their ski poles and splitboards. The “Notch” is on the north side of Mount Whitney’s face, near the Mount Whitney Mountaineer Route, deputies said.

“I waited there for over an hour and was forced to move down the chute to escape with cold wind, but never saw them come down the chute,” Cannaert wrote.

He trekked back to their campsite at Upper Boy Scout Lake and called the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office. Cannaert said both victims had cell service as they climbed the route, but didn’t respond to his messages.

But the couple never returned.

Zachary Edwards, a flight officer and paramedic with the California Highway Patrol’s Inland Division Air Operations, responded to the area Wednesday morning after the Inyo search-and-rescue team requested help locating the couple.

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.

“Tragically, both hikers were later discovered deceased,” the Sheriff’s Office said, though the preliminary cause of death was not disclosed.

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.

“Adventure buddy appreciation post,” Niziol wrote in an Instagram post on May 2. “We may not have made it to the peak due to weather (this time), but it still was a great time on Shasta! It’s so incredible to have someone to do all these amazing things with on a whim. You make me so happy! Now onto Mt. Whitney in a few days!”

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.

‘This is the kind of living I’ve dreamed about’

Bolan appeared to specialize in outdoor photography, linking her popular Instagram page to a gallery on Darkroom where she sold pictures of vast landscapes and nature, including mountain ranges in Norway and visuals of the northern lights. She spent time earlier this spring in Arizona where she posted from Monument Valley, calling it one of her favorite places, saying it “always makes me feel all warm n cozy.”

According to her Instagram posts, she completed a month-long, 800-mile hike along the Arizona Trail. She also posted about snowboarding in Lake Tahoe, marathoning, rock climbing, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, hitchhiking from Jordan to Syria and hiking along the Red Sea.

Niziol, in his last post on Instagram, posted pictures on mountain peaks with Bolan tagged and captioned, “This is the kind of living I’ve dreamed about for 15 years. I’ve finally surrounded myself with people to share these types of experiences with and I couldn’t be more thankful.”

Niziol also thanked Bolan for “being the most fun person I’ve ever met.” Niziol also regularly posted about snowboarding, his eight-year-old dog named Kita, going on moonlight hikes to see the sunrise and playing golf. He had worked at Riva Grill On the Lake, a popular restaurant near the Hilton resort on the south shore. A manager for the restaurant declined to comment about his death but confirmed he had worked there.

‘Typical’ conditions but still a challenge

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 can be highly technical and require training. The Mountaineer’s Route is considered the most strenuous and steepest of the trails, especially past the “Notch.”

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.

The Bee’s Chris Biderman and Daniel Hunt contributed to this story.