Woman dies, man rescued at Utah's Zion National Park

Nov. 25 (UPI) -- One man was rescued and a woman's body was recovered in Utah's Zion National Park on Wednesday after they were found by other park visitors.

The man, 33, and woman, 31, were a married couple on an approved 16-mile hike through the Narrows -- the narrowest section of Zion Canyon -- on Tuesday, when they experienced possible hypothermia overnight into Wednesday, park officials said in a statement. Authorities had not publicly identified the couple as of Friday morning.

"The pair stopped about a mile and a half from the north end of Riverside Walk (a paved trail that leads from the Temple of Sinawavato the Narrows)," park officials said in a statement. "Early in the morning of Nov. 23, the man continued on to get help while the woman remained."

Park rangers found the man on Riverside Walk where other visitors were assisting him down the trail. Other visitors farther up the Narrows administered CPR to the woman before Zion Search and Rescue Team members arrived.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office, Utah Office of the Medical Examiner and the National Park Service started investigations into the woman's death.

The Narrows features a gorge with walls standing 1,000 feet tall and a section of river 20-30 feet wide at its narrowest points.

The park service said most people hike the narrows "in the summer and early fall when the water tends to be its warmest and the water level drops" but warned that storms during that time of the year can also cause life-threatening flash floods.