SPRINGDALE, Utah — A woman died Wednesday after she and her husband suffered hypothermia while hiking the Narrows in Zion National Park.
Members of the park's search and rescue team went to the Narrows Wednesday morning area after visitors reported that they encountered an injured man and a woman who was unresponsive.
Park rangers found the man on Riverside Walk and took him to the park's emergency operations center. Other SAR team members went further up the Narrows, where they found the man's wife unresponsive near the Virgin River. First responders performed lifesaving efforts but eventually determined that she was dead.
After being rescued, the man told park employees that he and his wife started the 16-mile "top-down" trip through the Narrows on Tuesday. They had a permit for the hike.
Overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, the man said he and his wife became extremely cold and had symptoms that were consistent with hypothermia, park officials said. Early Wednesday morning, they stopped about a mile and a half from the north end of the Riverside Walk, where the woman stayed behind while her husband continued on to get help.
Other visitors at the park were helping him down the trail until members of the rescue team found him. Other bystanders administered CPR to the woman before first responders got there.
The cause of the woman's death is being investigated by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and the National Park Service.
The woman's name has not been released. Officials said she was 31 years old and her husband is 33.
