Two climbers from Northern California were found dead on Mount Whitney

TULARE COUNTY — Two people from Northern California have been 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 overdue around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. They reportedly planned to ski and snowboard from Mount Whitney’s “Notch” to Upper Boy Scout Lake, where they had set up camp.

The person who reported her missing was on a hike with Bolan and Niziol and waited several hours to arrive at the campsite, authorities said.

UC Davis confirmed that Bolan earned his doctorate in physics at the end of the fall 2024 semester.

Inyo County Search and Rescue assisted in the search for the victims.

Mount Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48 states. Its peak reaches an elevation of 14,505 feet in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Correction: An incorrect county was specified in the previous version of the article. This article has been updated to reflect that the climbers were identified by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office.