SPRINGDALE, Utah (KTVX) — A married couple’s 16-mile hike through the Narrows at the Zion National Park ended tragically just days before Thanksgiving.
Park visitors told shuttle drivers on Wednesday that they had seen an injured man and unresponsive woman in the Narrows, a popular hiking spot in the Utah national park, according to the National Park Service.
Members of the Zion National Park Search and Rescue Team responded and found a 33-year-old man on Riverside Walk, a trail that leads into the Narrows. Other visitors were already helping him down the trail.
Authorities transported him to the Zion Emergency Operations Center.
Other team members found the man’s 31-year-old wife unresponsive near the Virgin River. Visitors were performing CPR on the woman but first responders pronounced her dead at the scene.
The married couple began hiking through the Narrows on Tuesday. The man reported that they became “dangerously cold overnight” and experienced symptoms of hypothermia.
The couple stopped about 1 1/2 miles from the north end of Riverside Walk. Early Wednesday morning, the man said he continued to search for help while his wife remained where she was.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and the National Park Service are currently investigating the cause of the woman’s death.
Earlier this year, a woman from Tucson, Arizona, was found dead in the Virgin River after multiple hikers were swept off their feet by flash flooding in the Narrows.