Woman dies while hiking in Utah’s Zion Park, husband rescued

SPRINGDALE, Utah (AP) — A woman has died and a man was rescued and treated for hypothermia after they ran into bitterly cold weather while hiking in Utah’s Zion National Park, officials said.

The couple were on a permitted 16-mile (25-kilometer) hike through the park area known as the Narrows, the National Park Service said in a statement Thursday.

The 31-year-old woman and the 33-year-old man were not identified by park officials.

A Zion National Park search and rescue team responded Wednesday morning after trail drivers reported visitors reporting an injured man and an unresponsive woman in the Narrows, the park service said.

A rescue team found the man on the trail, who was being helped by other hikers, and took him to the Zion Emergency Operations Center for treatment. The rescuers advanced further along the Narrows and found the woman near the Deva River. They provided emergency treatment but found the woman dead, the park service said.

The couple began their journey through the Narrows on Tuesday. They stopped about 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the north end of the Riverside Walk, a paved path. The man told rescuers that they had gotten “dangerously cold” overnight and had developed symptoms of hypothermia, the park service said.

Early Wednesday morning, the man called for help, while the woman stayed put. Other visitors performed CPR on the woman before rescue teams arrived, the park service said.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Utah State Medical Examiner and the Park Service are investigating the woman’s cause of death.

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This story has been updated to correct the headline. The husband was not hospitalized, but was treated at the park’s emergency room.