On Monday, September 2nd, the body of Yukio Kato, a 60-year-old man from Torrance, California, was recovered in Sequoia National Park by National Park Service personnel assisted by the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, Inyo National Forest, and Tulare County Sheriff’s Office.

On the afternoon of September 1st, Kato fell approximately 200 feet down a cliff along the Mount Whitney Trail to his death. The incident happened approximately a mile from Mount Whitney at 13,500 feet above sea level while Kato was on the way back to the Whitney Portal trailhead. Earlier in the day, Kato and three other people hiked from that trailhead, located in the Inyo National Forest, to the summit of Mount Whitney.

The dispatch office at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks received the initial report of the incident from the county sheriff’s department at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 1st. The National Park Service dispatched a contract helicopter and a park medic to the accident scene, while nearby U.S. Forest Service wilderness rangers walked with other members of the hiking party back to the Whitney Portal trailhead.

Due to limited daylight hours, the body recovery was scheduled for Monday, September 2nd. A mountaineering technical rescue team of four park rangers from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks was sent to recover the body.