In Australia, a woman was found dead after hiking on Mount Tibrogargan on the Sunshine Coast. Police and emergency services were called to the base of Mount Tibrogargan at around 8:40am following reports a hiker heard someone calling for help. Crews conducted a foot search of the area and a woman's body was found just after 10:30am. The cause of her death is currently unknown. Officers believe the woman, who may have been alone, fell while on her hike. Police confirmed a report will be prepared for the coroner. It remains unclear what exactly caused her death or whether she was definitively alone at the time.
In the United States, a 65-year-old woman died after falling from a 60-foot cliff-edge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The hiker was walking the Alum Cave Trail, south of Gatlinburg, Tennessee on March 28 when the incident occurred. Rangers responded after receiving reports a woman had fallen, but they were unable to resuscitate her. On Monday, the park was still attempting to contact the woman's next of kin. As of March 31, park authorities had not yet released the woman's name. The death on Saturday is the fifth in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this year.
In France, rescuers from the High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon of Isère (PGHM) made a grim discovery in the Lauvitel lake area, near Bourg-d'Oisans (Isère) on Friday morning. The victim is a 69-year-old man. On Thursday evening, the PGHM began searching for a 69-year-old man from the Paris region after his relatives reported him missing. He had gone alone hiking in the mountain ranges of the Grenoble region. Using information from the family, rescuers quickly located the sexagenarian's vehicle. At nightfall, the search was stopped before resuming on Friday morning.
To locate the victim, rescuers used the Lifeseeker system. The body of the solitary hiker was located in a snowy, off-trail, and hard-to-access location. An accidental fall is the favored hypothesis, but an investigation has been opened by the gendarmerie to determine the exact circumstances.
In a separate incident in France, rescuers from the high mountain gendarmerie platoon found the lifeless body of a hiker who had been missing since Friday on Sunday afternoon. The woman, aged 63, had gone walking on a variant of the GR10, between Eaux-Bonnes and Gourette, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and had not given any sign of life. The sexagenarian was discovered at the foot of a cliff.
An investigation will now determine the causes of her death, although the accidental death hypothesis is favored. An autopsy has been ordered.