Zion National Park tourist dies on hiking trip, husband rescued


A woman died of cold on Wednesday while hiking in Zion National Park with her husband.

The 31-year-old woman was left behind by her 33-year-old husband to help him, the National Park Service said.

By the time he came back, she was dead.

The pair went hiking on a permitted 16-mile top-down route through the Narrows – at the same location 22-year-old Arizona tourist was swept away away in the waters of the terrible flood in August.

They started their journey on Tuesday and spent the night camping in the park.

The man said the weather turned “dangerously cold overnight,” the NPS said. His wife started showing symptoms identified as hypothermia.

Before rescuers arrived, hikers attempted CPR on the woman, but she died shortly after.
Before rescuers arrived, hikers attempted CPR on the woman, but she died shortly after.
National Park Service

On Wednesday morning, the couple stopped about a mile and a half from the north end of the Riverside Walk, a paved trail that leads from the Temple of Sinawawa to the Narrows, and decided to separate.

The woman is left behind while the husband, also injured, continues his journey, eventually finding park rangers along the way. The NPS said Zion Park team members took him to an emergency medical center.

Other visitors administered CPR to the woman before Zion’s rescue teams arrived, but it was too late.

The identity of the couple has not yet been revealed.

Woman dies the same day rescuers found her body in New Hampshire Vanderbilt student Emily Motellowho probably succumbed to the bone-chilling temperatures and high winds.

NPS officials remind those trekking in cold conditions to pack extra layers and food, stay dry and maintain physical movement.

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