A hiker died on Mount Whitney last weekend, falling off a cliff on a steep part of the trail, Inyo County Search & Rescue said.
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The fall was reported on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 25, on the 99 Switchbacks portion of the main trail up the 14,494-foot Eastern Sierra peak. High winds prevented a helicopter team’s recovery of the body until Monday, the search team said.
The hiker has not been publicly identified, and no further details of the incident were released. Fresno TV station KSEE reported that a hiker in another party said the man who died was from Chula Vista, in San Diego County.
The 99 Switchbacks segment gains 1,500 feet of elevation in about 2 miles, ending at the 13,650-foot Trail Crest. In optimal midsummer conditions, the main Whitney Trail does not require specialized equipment or mountaineering skills, but the Switchbacks are already “especially icy and slippery,” the search team’s report said.
At least six people have died on Whitney in the past two years, most of them on the Mountaineer’s Route — a shorter but steeper alternative to the main trail that involves scrambling on rocks. The most recent reported was Harris Levinson, a 61-year-old solo backpacker who went missing in June and was found to have suffered a fatal injury in a fall.
Also in June, a 14-year-old Santa Clarita boy suffered severe injuries when he began hallucinating and walked off a ledge while descending Mount Whitney. Zane Wach and his father had ascended the peak by the Mountaineer’s Route but were reportedly coming down via the trail.
