Zion National Park tourist dies on hiking trip, husband rescued

A woman died Wednesday during a hiking trip in Zion National Park with her husband after succumbing to the freezing temperatures.

The 31-year-old woman was left behind by her husband, 33, so he could bring her help, the National Park Service said.

By the time he came back, she was dead.

The pair had been hiking on a permitted 16-mile top-down route through the Narrows — the same place a 22-year-old Arizona tourist was swept away in terrifying floodwater in August.

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

The man said the weather turned “dangerously cold overnight,” NPS said. His wife began showing signs they recognized as hypothermia.

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

The woman stayed behind while the husband, also injured, continued his journey, eventually finding park rangers on the path. Zion park team members took him to an emergency medical center, the NPS said.

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

The identities of the couple have not yet been revealed.

The woman’s death comes on the same day rescuers in New Hampshire found the body of Vanderbilt student Emily Sotelo, who likely succumbed to bone-chilling temperatures and high winds.

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