Posted on 02/02/2017 1:58:45 PM PST by nickcarraway
The incident is under investigation.
The body of an 18-year-old San Diego teen was found off a Grand Canyon National Park trail this weekend, the National Park Service (NPS) said.
On Saturday at approximately 5 p.m., a witness called the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center to report that a man had fallen off the rim near the South Kaibab Trailhead. The trailhead is located off Highway 64, near the North Rim of the Canyon.
Park rangers found the body of an 18-year-old male, but could not get to him because of steep terrain, snow, ice and impending darkness.
The following day, rangers used a helicopter to get to the body.
The body was later identified as Luis Gonzales, 18, of San Diego. The San Diego Unified School District said Gonzales graduated from Hoover High School last year. The school offered support to any students that needed it on Monday.
The incident is under investigation by the National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner's office.
No further information was available.
This is very sad, losing his life so young. The north rim is beautiful but I don’t think that it has any services open during the winter months. It is not illegal to be there, just very risky. It is higher, colder and has more snow than the South Rim.
It probably isn’t a good idea to go alone.
Darwin theory?
Still sad
I’ve hiked it twice, both in one day and back up the Bright Angel Trail...I can’t imagine what someone would do to fall off unless they did it on purpose. It ain’t a straight drop, either...cars have gone over the edge, and they paint then brown to blend in.
The North Rim is closed in the winter and all winter there is a lot of snow and ice on trails and edges of the rim. I hiked there one time in September and the North Rim Lodge etc. were all open, but when it snowed hiking was dangerous. I hiked down the South Kaibab Trail about 1K feet and was amazed when I saw that the darkest clouds were down in the Canyon and when the wind came up, big snowflakes were blowing upwards. I turned around and hiked out to the rim where I found my car covered with a foot of snow. Never again! North Rim weather patterns are impossible to predict.
I have hiked the Canyon and the North Rim is certainly closed. People need to be careful. The Rim is dangerous any time of year
Maybe suicide.
I don’t know. Because it’s dangerous, but there’s no guarantee you will die, or that you won’t live a long time before dying. But, I guess, a beautiful place to go.
Gravity and sudden decel kills.
Yes. I didn’t mean to sound so callous.
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