INDEPENDENCE — Two climbers reported missing this week on California’s towering Mount Whitney have been found dead, officials said Thursday.
A friend who had been with the climbers called authorities Tuesday night after they failed to arrive as planned at their campsite, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The friend said the pair had planned to ski or snowboard from the Notch, near the top of the Mountaineer’s Route up Whitney, down to their camp at Upper Boy Scout Lake, at 11,300 feet elevation.
A helicopter crew and teams on the slopes launched a search.
“Tragically, both hikers were later discovered deceased,” the sheriff’s statement said.
Because the bodies were within Tulare County, the case is being handled by that county’s sheriff-coroner’s office.
The Tulare County agency identified the victims as Andrew Niziol, 28, and Patty Bolan, 29. Niziol lived in South Lake Tahoe; no city of residence was given for Bolan, but the Sacramento Bee said she had recently completed doctoral studies in physics at the University of California, Davis.
With a summit reaching 14,500 feet, Mount Whitney is the highest point in the U.S. outside Alaska.
