2 climbers from Northern California found dead on Mount Whitney
TULARE COUNTY -- Two people from Northern California were found dead after they went missing while climbing California's Mount Whitney earlier this week.
The Tulare County Sheriff's Office identified the climbers as 29-year-old Patricia Bolan of Davis and 28-year-old Andrew Niziol of South Lake Tahoe.
The two were reported as overdue around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. They were reported to have plans to ski and snowboard from Mount Whitney's "notch" to Upper Boy Scout Lake where they had camp set up.
The person who reported them as missing had been hiking with Bolan and Niziol and waited several hours for them to arrive at the campsite, authorities said.
UC Davis confirmed that Bolan graduated at the end of the Winter 2024 term with a Ph.D in Physics.
The Inyo County Search and Rescue assisted in locating the victims.
Mount Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48 states. Its summit reaches 14,505 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Correction: The previous version of the article stated an incorrect county. This article has been updated to reflect the climbers were identified by the Tulare County Sheriff's Office.